Git clone results in "fatal: Unable to find remote helper for 'https'" when using a local git executable

[kittaakos]

... and it works as expected both when I use the executable with dugite and when I use child_process. Maybe it is not the appropriate channel to ask for help, but I was unable to clone any public repositories (without required authentication) when I set the LOCAL_GIT_DIRECTORY environment variable. Does anyone have a pointer what am I doing wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Here a very stupid simple module that does the cloning with both dugite and with the child_process.

index.js

const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');
const gp = require('dugite').GitProcess;
const cp = require('child_process');


getVersionWithDugite();
cloneWithDugite('https://github.com/desktop/dugite.git');

process.env.LOCAL_GIT_DIRECTORY = '/usr/local/';

getVersionWithDugite();
cloneWithDugite('https://github.com/desktop/what-the-changelog.git');

getVersionWithChildProcess();
cloneWithChildProcess('https://github.com/desktop/dugite-native.git');


function getVersionWithDugite() {
    gp.exec(['--version']).then(result => {
        console.log("_____________________");
        console.log("OUT", result.stdout.trim());
        console.log("ERR", result.stderr.trim());
        console.log("_____________________");
    });
}

function cloneWithDugite(url) {
    gp.exec(['clone', url]).then(result => {
        console.log("_____________________");
        console.log("OUT", result.stdout.trim());
        console.log("ERR", result.stderr.trim());
        console.log("_____________________");
    });
}

function getVersionWithChildProcess() {
    cp.execFile('/usr/local/bin/git', ['--version'], (error, stdout, stderr) => {
        console.log('stdout', stdout)
        console.log('stderr', stderr)
    });
}

function cloneWithChildProcess(url) {
    cp.execFile('/usr/local/bin/git', ['clone', url], (error, stdout, stderr) => {
        console.log('stdout', stdout)
        console.log('stderr', stderr)
    });
}

package.json

{
  "name": "dugite-clone",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  "keywords": [],
  "author": "kittaakos <kittaakos@gmail.com>",
  "license": "ISC",
  "dependencies": {
    "dugite": "^1.39.0"
  }
}

[shiftkey]

@kittaakos ah, I think I know this one.

We set GIT_EXEC_PATH to the same known location, and at least on macOS this path may be something different. You can check this by running git --exec-path:

$ git --exec-path
/usr/local/Cellar/git/2.14.1/libexec/git-core

Two potential ways out of this:

• don't set GIT_EXEC_PATH if you already have LOCAL_GIT_DIRECTORY set, assume the user has configured Git correctly
• run git --exec-path and set it as an environment variable if you have LOCAL_GIT_DIRECTORY set

[kittaakos]

Thank you, @shiftkey! Both approaches work perfectly. I would say; when one sets the GIT_LOCAL_DIRECTORY variable one should be aware of setting the GIT_EXEC_PATH environment variable too.

Unfortunately, even if I set both environment variables, the GIT_EXEC_PATH gets overridden here.

The following would be my expectation about the behavior; when the custom GIT_EXEC_PATH is set, then dugite itself does not try to locate it again, but blindly uses the user specified path, just like with the LOCAL_GIT_DIRECTORY .

Would that change make sense to you? Do you accept contributions? Also, please correct me if I misunderstood something. Thanks in advance!

[shiftkey]

Would that change make sense to you?

Yes! This makes sense, it was just me not considering the full range of scenarios. And I like respecting the existing environment variable, as it avoids us executing a git --exec-path ourselves.

Do you accept contributions?

I do! Happy to review and work with you on a fix if you're feeling up to it!

[kittaakos]

Awesome! I was put on another project, but I do my best to come up with a PR in this week. Bear with me.

[kittaakos]

PR: #114.

[shiftkey]

Fixed by #114