msysgit - sh.exe - fork: Permission denied - Vista 64 bit

Question

I installed msysgit on other Windows machines with no problems. On this Vista 64 bit Ultimate box, I installed the 3 most recent versions of msysgit. On all three installs, when I do a "git bash here", I get exactly this on the command window:

sh.exe": fork: Permission denied
sh.exe"-3.1$

The git command doesn't work. I get the same permission denied message. Any clues as to how to fix this?

Update

Also, when I do "git gui here" - I get:

Cannot determine Git version.

couldn't execute "C\...\git-core\git.exe

Git Gui requires Git 1.5.0 or later

I'm using a version newer than 1.5.0.

Twilatwilight

Do you have Cygwin installed? – Fabre

@VonC: msysgit works without Cygwin, that's why you use it in the first place.. – @Steve: What command are you actually using? git bash doesn't exist. – Ignatzia

@poke: true, but if you had Cygwin installed (independently from your msysgit installation), some side-effect might appear. Hence my question. And "git bash here" does exist, not as a command per se, but as a contextual menu to bring up a bash shell window on the current path. – Fabre

@Fabre - No Cygwin. Svn and TortoiseSvn are on the machine but I would think that has nothing to do with it. @Ignatzia - git --version doesn't work. Actually git anything doesn't work. I keep getting permission denied. I tried all 3 options on the screen that asks what kind of prompt. The last option, windows and unix, when I do git bash here, completely fails. – Twilatwilight

Is the git\cmd directory in your path? – Ignatzia

@Ignatzia - No, what do you mean, c:/program files (x86)/git/cmd? – Twilatwilight

Yeah, when I installed msysgit, it automatically added C:\Program Files\Git\cmd to the PATH (you had to select that you want to support custom shells during the install). – Ignatzia

I added it - still the same error. I tried adding bin too. On the install, I stuck with the first option - bash only though. – Twilatwilight

@Steve: uninstall, and retry the installation with option 2 "Run Git from the Windows Command Prompt": it won't prevent you to run git in a bash shell, but it might work better overall. – Fabre

@Steve: try also to install it in a custom directory (not C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files(x86) but C:\myTools\Git for instance) – Fabre

@VonC: Ding, ding, ding, ding! We have a winner. I combined both your steps, so not sure which did it, but I tried the win cmd prmpt before and it didn't work, so maybe it was the path. Really appreciate the help. – Twilatwilight

Looks good - I got the remote clone to work, so hopefully push and pulls will too. I actually started a repository in Mercurial. Hopefully that will wait till much later. – Twilatwilight

@Steve: all right, I have made an answer reflecting the "correct" steps ("correct" as in "actually working" ;) ). – Fabre

Answer 1

The usual way I install msysgit is:

• not in C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files(x86)
  (That avoid any issue with the UAC mechanism: I had the same "permission denied" problem with eclipse, and this kind of program shouldn't be installed in Program Files anyway.)
• with the option "Run Git from the Windows Command Prompt": minimal impact on the PATH, and avoid side-effect with an eventual Cygwin already installed.

It never failed to work this way.

Fabre

@Steve: I just saw groups.google.com/group/msysgit/browse_thread/thread/… and I too would like to know the difference between "Git for Windows" and msysgit. I have always thought of msysgit as Git for Windows! – Fabre

+10 if I could. Every time I switched branches, I was getting the permission denied error and a random number of files weren't getting written. I had to revert all changes before being able to continue. Uninstalling mysysgit and reinstalling to c:\git resolved the issue. – Aldose