Issue cloning kernel-doc-zh from HUST mirror

Issue cloning kernel-doc-zh from HUST mirror

[Siwei Chen]

Hello,

I am following the documentation at:

https://docs.kernel.org/translations/zh_CN/how-to.html#id3

When trying to clone the repository from the recommended mirror:

git clone https://mirrors.hust.edu.cn/git/kernel-doc-zh.git linux

I consistently get the following error:

error: RPC failed; curl 52 Empty reply from server
fatal: expected 'packfile'

My environment is:

Ubuntu 26.04
git version 2.53

I have verified that the URL is reachable from my network, but the clone 
operation still fails.

Could anyone help me understand whether this is a mirror-side issue, a Git 
compatibility issue, or something wrong with my setup?

Thank you for your time.

Best regards,
Siwei Chen

Re: Issue cloning kernel-doc-zh from HUST mirror

[Dongliang Mu]

On 6/23/26 3:39 PM, Siwei Chen wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am following the documentation at:
>
> https://docs.kernel.org/translations/zh_CN/how-to.html#id3
>
> When trying to clone the repository from the recommended mirror:
>
> git clone https://mirrors.hust.edu.cn/git/kernel-doc-zh.git linux
>
> I consistently get the following error:
>
> error: RPC failed; curl 52 Empty reply from server
> fatal: expected 'packfile'
>
> My environment is:
>
> Ubuntu 26.04
> git version 2.53
>
> I have verified that the URL is reachable from my network, but the clone
> operation still fails.
>
> Could anyone help me understand whether this is a mirror-side issue, a Git
> compatibility issue, or something wrong with my setup?

I confirmed this is a mirror-side issue. Please use the first git repo:

git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/alexs/linux.git

Dongliang Mu

>
> Thank you for your time.
>
> Best regards,
> Siwei Chen
>

Re: Issue cloning kernel-doc-zh from HUST mirror

[Dongliang Mu]

On 6/23/26 3:39 PM, Siwei Chen wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am following the documentation at:
>
> https://docs.kernel.org/translations/zh_CN/how-to.html#id3
>
> When trying to clone the repository from the recommended mirror:
>
> git clone https://mirrors.hust.edu.cn/git/kernel-doc-zh.git linux
>
> I consistently get the following error:
>
> error: RPC failed; curl 52 Empty reply from server
> fatal: expected 'packfile'
Hello Siwei,

The long answer is as follows:

The curl 52 Empty reply from server error is not a Git or Ubuntu 
compatibility issue. It happens because the kernel-doc-zh repository is 
extremely large, and the HUST mirror server closes the HTTPS connection 
early due to timeout or proxy limits.

You can try the following commands:


      1. Shallow clone first (most reliable)



      git clone --depth 1
      https://mirrors.hust.edu.cn/git/kernel-doc-zh.git linux



      Then fetch full history:



      git fetch --unshallow

If still failing, increase Git buffer like:

git config --global http.postBuffer 1073741824



      Finally, I will contact maintainers of HUST mirror site and try
      some attempts to resolve this issue.

Dongliang Mu

>
> My environment is:
>
> Ubuntu 26.04
> git version 2.53
>
> I have verified that the URL is reachable from my network, but the clone
> operation still fails.
>
> Could anyone help me understand whether this is a mirror-side issue, a Git
> compatibility issue, or something wrong with my setup?
>
> Thank you for your time.
>
> Best regards,
> Siwei Chen
>

Re: Issue cloning kernel-doc-zh from HUST mirror

[Siwei Chen]

在 2026年6月23日星期二 中国标准时间 16:51:20，Dongliang Mu 写道：
> Hello Siwei,
> 
> The long answer is as follows:
> 
> The curl 52 Empty reply from server error is not a Git or Ubuntu
> compatibility issue. It happens because the kernel-doc-zh repository is
> extremely large, and the HUST mirror server closes the HTTPS connection
> early due to timeout or proxy limits.
> 
> You can try the following commands:
> 
> 
>       1. Shallow clone first (most reliable)
> 
> 
> 
>       git clone --depth 1
>       https://mirrors.hust.edu.cn/git/kernel-doc-zh.git linux
> 
> 
> 
>       Then fetch full history:
> 
> 
> 
>       git fetch --unshallow
> 
> If still failing, increase Git buffer like:
> 
> git config --global http.postBuffer 1073741824
> 
> 
> 
>       Finally, I will contact maintainers of HUST mirror site and try
>       some attempts to resolve this issue.
> 
> Dongliang Mu
> 

Hello, Dongliang

Thank you for the detailed explanation and suggestions.

I will try the shallow clone approach and the other workarounds you mentioned.

I also appreciate your willingness to contact the HUST mirror maintainers and 
investigate the issue further.

Thanks again for your help.

Best regards,
Siwei Chen

Re: Issue cloning kernel-doc-zh from HUST mirror

[Weijie Yuan]

On Tue, Jun 23, 2026 at 04:51:20PM +0800, Dongliang Mu wrote:
> The curl 52 Empty reply from server error is not a Git or Ubuntu
> compatibility issue. It happens because the kernel-doc-zh repository is
> extremely large, and the HUST mirror server closes the HTTPS connection
> early due to timeout or proxy limits.
> 
> You can try the following commands:
> 
>      1. Shallow clone first (most reliable)
> 
>      git clone --depth 1
>      https://mirrors.hust.edu.cn/git/kernel-doc-zh.git linux
> 
>      Then fetch full history:
> 
>      git fetch --unshallow
> 
> If still failing, increase Git buffer like:
> 
> git config --global http.postBuffer 1073741824
> 
>      Finally, I will contact maintainers of HUST mirror site and try
>      some attempts to resolve this issue.

Thanks, and yes, shallow clone could work:

user@debian:~$ git clone --depth 1 https://mirrors.hust.edu.cn/git/kernel-doc-zh.git linux
Cloning into 'linux'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 93130, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (93130/93130), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (90511/90511), done.
remote: Total 93130 (delta 7145), reused 20322 (delta 1615), pack-reused 0
Receiving objects: 100% (93130/93130), 259.15 MiB | 4.71 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (7145/7145), done.
Updating files: 100% (87897/87897), done.

But:

user@debian:~$ cd linux
user@debian:~/linux$ git fetch --unshallow

(after ~10 minutes or so)

remote: Enumerating objects: 10638034, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (10638019/10638019), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (1819658/1819658), done.
error: RPC failed; curl 56 GnuTLS recv error (-9): Error decoding the received TLS packet.
error: 5476 bytes of body are still expected
fetch-pack: unexpected disconnect while reading sideband packet
fatal: early EOF
fatal: fetch-pack: invalid index-pack output

and in a mac (26.5.1) Git 2.54, probably the same:

$ git clone https://mirrors.hust.edu.cn/git/kernel-doc-zh.git linux
Cloning into 'linux'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 11406904, done.
error: RPC failed; curl 18 transfer closed with outstanding read data remaining
error: 7537 bytes of body are still expected
fetch-pack: unexpected disconnect while reading sideband packet
fatal: early EOF
fatal: fetch-pack: invalid index-pack output

after setting http.postBuffer 1073741824 on debian:

user@debian:~/linux$ git config --global http.postBuffer 1073741824
user@debian:~/linux$ git fetch --unshallow
(after ~10 minutes)
remote: Enumerating objects: 10638034, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (10638019/10638019), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (1819658/1819658), done.
error: RPC failed; curl 56 GnuTLS recv error (-9): Error decoding the received TLS packet.
error: 5917 bytes of body are still expected
fetch-pack: unexpected disconnect while reading sideband packet
fatal: early EOF
fatal: fetch-pack: invalid index-pack output

Apparently the above is of limited value, as it is straightforward to
reproduce.

> Please use the first git repo:
>
> git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/alexs/linux.git

The average speed of cloning from git.kernel.org is less than 10 KiB/s
from Chengdu ;-)

But of course, a shallow clone is enough for translation work ;-)

Thanks!