error 'cannot create thread' doing clone or fetch

error 'cannot create thread' doing clone or fetch

[Jesse Reynolds]

Hello

I have just installed git 1.7.5 on Solaris 9, SPARC, using a package
from sunfreeware.com. I've created a new repository with 'git init'
and done a commit. Now I'm trying to set up a shared repository but it
seems there is some issue preventing git from creating a thread for
the 'sideband demultiplexer'.

First trying to do a git fetch --bare locally to create the shared
repository fails:

$ git --bare init --shared
Initialized empty shared Git repository in /pub/lots.git/
$ git --bare fetch /home/jesse/src/lots master:master
error: cannot create thread: Unknown error
fatal: fetch-pack: unable to fork off sideband demultiplexer
$ Broken Pipe

I worked around the above error by using 'git clone --bare' instead.
But now from a remote box I'm unable to do a clone over ssh for the
same reason:

$ git clone ssh://test03/pub/lots.git
Cloning into lots...
error: cannot create thread: Unknown error
fatal: fetch-pack: unable to fork off sideband demultiplexer
$ error: git upload-pack: git-pack-objects died with error.
fatal: git upload-pack: aborting due to possible repository corruption
on the remote side.

Any help greatly appreciated.

I've searched the mailing list and online and can't seem to find
anyone else having this issue. Then again my search skills don't seem
to be what they once used to be!

Cheers
Jesse

Re: error 'cannot create thread' doing clone or fetch

[Jeff King]

On Tue, May 17, 2011 at 05:52:44PM +0930, Jesse Reynolds wrote:

> I have just installed git 1.7.5 on Solaris 9, SPARC, using a package
> from sunfreeware.com. I've created a new repository with 'git init'
> and done a commit. Now I'm trying to set up a shared repository but it
> seems there is some issue preventing git from creating a thread for
> the 'sideband demultiplexer'.
> 
> First trying to do a git fetch --bare locally to create the shared
> repository fails:
> 
> $ git --bare init --shared
> Initialized empty shared Git repository in /pub/lots.git/
> $ git --bare fetch /home/jesse/src/lots master:master
> error: cannot create thread: Unknown error
> fatal: fetch-pack: unable to fork off sideband demultiplexer
> $ Broken Pipe

Weird. The only way that can happen is if pthread_create returned error,
and the value it stuffed in errno is not useful ("unknown error"). 
Offhand, I'd guess maybe something in the package build does not match
your environment very well. Can you try building git from source? If the
error persists, you could certainly get around it by defining
NO_PTHREADS then.

You could also try running it under "truss", though I doubt it is going
to turn up anything more useful than "unknown error".

> I've searched the mailing list and online and can't seem to find
> anyone else having this issue. Then again my search skills don't seem
> to be what they once used to be!

I think this is the first we've ever seen this particular issue.

-Peff

Re: error 'cannot create thread' doing clone or fetch

[Randy Brandenburg]

I am experiencing this exact error while trying to clone a remote repository. 
Did you figure out what the cause was and how to fix it?