windmill-labs/windmill · error

Error getting git repo commit hash: {stderr}

Error message

Error getting git repo commit hash: {stderr}

What it means

In clone_repo, after running `git rev-parse` (or similar) to get the repository commit hash, the command exited non-zero. The stderr is embedded so the underlying git failure (missing repo, auth failure, bad ref) is visible.

Source

Thrown at backend/windmill-worker/src/ansible_executor.rs:376

    let mut rev_parse_cmd = Command::new(GIT_PATH.as_str());

    let commit_hash_output = rev_parse_cmd
        .current_dir(job_dir)
        .env_clear()
        .envs(PROXY_ENVS.clone())
        .env("PATH", PATH_ENV.as_str())
        .env("TZ", TZ_ENV.as_str())
        .env("GIT_SSH_COMMAND", git_ssh_cmd)
        .arg("-C")
        .arg(&target_path)
        .args(["rev-parse", "HEAD"])
        .stderr(Stdio::piped())
        .output()
        .await?;

    if !commit_hash_output.status.success() {
        let stderr = String::from_utf8(commit_hash_output.stderr)?;
        return Err(anyhow!("Error getting git repo commit hash: {stderr}").into());
    }

    let commit_hash = String::from_utf8(commit_hash_output.stdout)?
        .trim()
        .to_string();

    Ok(commit_hash)
}

pub fn create_empty_dir(path: &PathBuf) -> std::io::Result<()> {
    if path.exists() {
        if path.is_dir() {
            let mut entries = std::fs::read_dir(&path)?;
            if entries.next().is_some() {
                return Err(std::io::Error::new(
                    std::io::ErrorKind::AlreadyExists,
                    format!(
                        "Directory '{}' already exists and is not empty",

View on GitHub (pinned to e474e8803c)

Solutions

1. Read the stderr in the message — it names the git failure
2. Verify the repo URL, branch/tag and credentials (deploy key or token) are correct
3. Test `git ls-remote <url>` from the worker environment
4. Ensure git is installed in the worker image and egress to the git host is allowed

git ls-remote "$REPO_URL" "$BRANCH" >/dev/null 2>&1 || echo "repo/branch not reachable"
command -v git >/dev/null || echo "git missing in worker image"

// retry transient git failures before failing the job
for attempt in 0..3 {
    match clone_repo(...).await {
        Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("commit hash") && attempt < 2 => {
            tokio::time::sleep(Duration::from_secs(2u64.pow(attempt))).await;
        }
        other => { other?; break; }
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Ansible job requires a git repo; the git command to read the commit hash fails — repo not cloned yet, wrong branch/tag, bad credentials, or git not installed in the worker image.

Common situations: Private repo without deploy key/token; repo URL typo; worker image missing git binary; network egress blocked from the worker.

Understand the failure class

Background: "git command failed": what it means when a tool shells out to git and git exits non-zero — this error's family across 21 libraries.

Related errors

• failed to execute replace_ephemeral command: {}
• Failed to parse git repo: {e}
• Should be a Map
• Expected `url` field
• Expected `target` field (target directory for cloning the re

AI-assisted analysis of windmill-labs/windmill@e474e8803c (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/911da1ea2424f714. Report an issue: GitHub.