Unsafe repository errors when indexing or viewing a review in Fisheye/Crucible
Platform Notice: Data Center Only - This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Data Center platform.
Note that this KB was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center KBs for non-Data-Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.
*Except Fisheye and Crucible
Summary
Fisheye/Crucible is suddenly unable to run git commands due to a check at the git level. Reviews and indexing are impacted and the following can be seen in the UI and application logs:
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com.atlassian.fisheye.dvcs.handler.DvcsProcessException: Error while communicating with VCS: fatal: unsafe repository ('$FISHEYE_INST/var/cache/local_repo/clone' is owned by someone else)
To add an exception for this directory, call:
git config --global --add safe.directory Environment
confirmed on Fisheye 4.8.9 and Linux but likely applies to all supported versions and platforms
Diagnosis
confirm the subdirs of FISHEYE_INST and FISHEYE_INSTALLATION are all owned by the same user running the Fisheye application
cd $FISHEYE_INST && find . ! -user <feuser>
Cause
If the user is not the same or a different user owns files and/or directories git might complain about an unsafe repo.
Even if the user running Fisheye is root on a Linux Distribution this issue can occur if there are files/dirs owned by another user.
Typically this is the result of Fisheye being first stood up using a dedicated user eg. feuser and then on subsequent start up a different user like root is used.
Solution
Ensure the same user running Fisheye/Crucible owns all the files and directories in Fisheye home and installation:
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chown -R user:user $FISHEYE_INST
chown -R user:user $FISHEYE_INSTALLATION
chmod -R 755 $FISHEYE_INST
chmod -R 755 $FISHEYE_INSTALLATIONTo round everything out we ensure sensible file permissions using chmod
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