Why does git pull hang?

Question

When I do a git pull, from the git bash, the terminal usually runs the pull, updates my local, and then hangs. I'm not sure if it's waiting for me to do something, but I usually exit out of this with CTRL-C. After that, I get that an index.lock is preventing me from doing other things to which I have to delete it. Am I misunderstanding how git pull works?

In the terminal, execute as one statement `GIT_TRACE=true git pull`, and then see if you can see what it is doing when it hangs. — Lasse V. Karlsen, May 17 '17 at 17:23
Are you on Windows? If so, and if it is hanging during the `git merge` step, do you have some process running that is holding a lock on some file? Windows has "mandatory locking" in which if process *A* has a file locked, and process *B* (Git) tries to *use* that file, process *B* is paused until *A* releases the lock. If you terminate *B* (i.e., ^C out of Git), ideally it should clean up its `index.lock` file (which doesn't use Windows' mandatory locking, it's just an ordinary file Git uses to coordinate with itself), but apparently it doesn't. — torek, May 17 '17 at 17:53

score 84 · Answer 1 · answered May 09 '18 at 12:11

84

You may need to remove unnecessary git objects such as dangling commits & blobs:

git fsck && git gc --prune=now

git-fsck : Verifies the connectivity and validity of the objects in the database
git-gc : Cleanup unnecessary files and optimize the local repository

You can refer here about dangling commits & blobs.

answered May 09 '18 at 12:11

Akif

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`git gc --prune=now` did it for me, though it did take about 10-15 minutes to finish. I ran it with `GIT_TRACE=true git gc --prune=now` to verify it was working and not permanently lagging. (`git fsck` lagged for me and didn't seem to help) – skplunkerin Feb 08 '22 at 20:03

score 9 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 01 '17 at 14:48

If you are pulling from a linux machine you may want to check this file:

/etc/ssh/ssh_config

To make sure you aren't setting your default SSH port to something other than 22. Some people get confused between that file and:

/etc/ssh/sshd_config

When they're setting up servers to a non-standard SSH port.

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 11 '17 at 15:07

7

I am in Windows, and I solved the hang by closing the Visual Studio before doing the pull.

answered Oct 11 '17 at 15:07

Zac

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(On Mac OS X) I had Visual Studio Code opened and it hung on `git pull`. Closed it. Did `git pull` again and VS Code launched and opened a commit message for the `merge` that was needed because of the `git pull`. Entered a message, saved, closed the window and all was well. – Jheasly Nov 01 '17 at 01:33
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I had issues with my network which was blocking the ssh connections, when I read your answer I realized that my problem can be other thing than what I was expecting to be. – allexiusw Aug 23 '21 at 17:41

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 11 '20 at 05:59

4

Check SSH_AUTH_SOCK isn't pointing at a stale ssh-agent endpoint. Unset it (unset SSH_AUTH_SOCK) to test.

answered Mar 11 '20 at 05:59

Barry Kelly

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score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 20 '20 at 22:13

3

Your ISP might be blocking the traffic. For example, VirginMedia in the UK does something with a proxy for their filters that causes GitHub traffic to hang. I had this issue, and disabling the filter fixed it.

answered Sep 20 '20 at 22:13

sjmeverett

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Thanks so much for this! They've had this issue since 2018 and it still exists. Unbelievable! – rbennell Jan 01 '22 at 16:29

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered May 19 '21 at 02:09

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On Fedora 32, all git commands were hanging for me (only for repos on gitlab), solved with

sudo sysctl -w net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6=1
sudo sysctl -w net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6=1

leaving this here in case it helps anyone else

answered May 19 '21 at 02:09

byake

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I had to run ```bash sudo sysctl -w net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6=1 ``` on Pop_OS! for a GitLab repo too, worked fine for GitHub, very weird. – Brian Di Palma Apr 01 '22 at 19:28

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Nov 03 '21 at 03:52

As someone who does not use VS Code very often, I too thought git was hanging when I ran git pull. Turns out I was just not very observant. As illustrated in the image below, I was laser focused on the terminal and did not notice the prompt for a username which was the actual cause of the "hang".

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Feb 13 '20 at 10:13

Had same issue, which was related to my ssh client.

This was confirmed trying to connect to a remote ssh server with the '-v' (verbose) option

ssh -v -p PORTNUMBER USERNAME@SERVER

which gave rekey after XXXXXX blocks” before getting stuck.

apt-get purge and apt-get install didn't help, so - before facing the interestign approach here exposed at https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/280800 - I went for an easy reboot, which did the job.

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Oct 27 '21 at 12:20

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I updated git scm 2.32.0 to 2.33.1 version and problem with hanging fetch, push, pull was resolved

answered Oct 27 '21 at 12:20

Mike

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thanks! it's working,I just download the latest version of git that solved my problem! – Bub Mar 22 '22 at 06:23

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Jun 05 '21 at 16:23

My problem was that I had changed my ssh config file and this repository was using a non-existent ssh config.

To check remote config:

git remote -v

To check ssh config:

cat ~/.ssh/config

To fix it, I had to remove remote and add a new one:

git remote add origin
git remote add origin right-ssh-config

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Nov 16 '21 at 07:19

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I faced the same issue while using VSCode. I solved it by toggling off and on the GitHub: Git Authentication setting (in User Settings (UI))

answered Nov 16 '21 at 07:19

Vladimir Iashin

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score 0 · Answer 12 · edited Jan 08 '22 at 16:11

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If you are in Linux, close and reopen the terminal and restart your ssh. Enter the following code in the terminal, and try again.

eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

ssh-add ~/.ssh/putHereYourSSHkey

ssh -T git@github.com

edited Jan 08 '22 at 16:11

Vega

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answered Jan 08 '22 at 14:13

Baboucarr Badjie

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Can you add some detail about why you believe this will fix the issue? Thanks! – Bek Jan 08 '22 at 15:49
Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer). – Community Jan 08 '22 at 18:05

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Feb 01 '22 at 07:31

0

In my case, the problem was solved by switching ssh to use IPv4.

To do that, put AddressFamily inet string into ~/.ssh/config file.

answered Feb 01 '22 at 07:31

flomaster

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Why does git pull hang?

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