CODEWITHSUNDEEP
gitgit-config
Rajeev Menon
Rajeev Menon

Reputation: 294

warning: unable to access 'H:/.config/git/config': Permission denied

All my git history is lost and I see this fatal error in the package manager console in visual studio. The version of Git is "Git for Windows v2.26.2". I did extensive research before posting this. All solutions are pointing to changing the HOME environment variable. In the place I work, the home directory is a shared drive which I have no access to change. I followed the steps to specify a local config file under the project by giving the command "git config --local". It still throw that same error. I see that there is a file called "H:\.gitconfig" which has the [User] directive. Following another article, I added a [Include] directive to that file to point to the ".git/.gitconfig" file I created under the current project folder. I still get the same error.

Assuming that I cannot change the environment variable or fix the permission issue with that folder, is there anyway I can resolve this issue?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 403

Answers (1)

bk2204
bk2204

Reputation: 76409

On Unix, the HOME environment variable points to the user's home directory. This is almost always a location which is owned by the user and usually not accessible to other users (except maybe the superuser). It is designed to be for the exclusive use of that user, and managed and structured at their whim and direction (possibly subject to certain policies, such as a quota).

The home directory you're mentioning is not configured that way. As such, when you're using a program which is Unix-focused, like Git, setting HOME to that directory is not correct. If you'd like Git to function normally, you'll need to configure HOME to point to another location that does meet those criteria.

It is possible to completely ignore the global (home directory) configuration files by setting the environment variable GIT_CONFIG_GLOBAL to /dev/null. However, even doing that, you may find that Git doesn't work properly if HOME is not correctly set, and as a result, you may need to change HOME regardless. Even if it does work, you would then have to set your aliases, personal name and email, and any other configuration in each local repository, which would be inconvenient and not recommended.

Upvotes: 2

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