Git error: <filename> is far too short to be a packfile

Question

I am running Git on windows, and I could commit to my repository yesterday, but now I get the following errors when I try to commit or run git status :

error: file .git/objects/pack/pack-{some_hash_here}.pack is far too short to be a packfile

warning: packfile .git/objects/pack/pack-{some_hash_here}.pack cannot be accessed

The file is on the file system here (I have full permissions on the file):

Here is the full error message:

What does this mean? How can I fix it? My googling isn't helping; any help is greatly appreciated!

Update: ran git fsck --verbose and I get a similar error.

Answer 1

After rebooting my computer and remounting the drive, it works now.

ETA: I was able to RDP in to the server (as the same user) and run git normally while the error kept occurring locally.

Answer 2

Run git fsck to see what the tool reports - in all likelihood, one of your pack files got deleted or corrupted. If so, the easiest way to fix it (rather than trying to hunt down a backup of the pack file) is to save the changes you've made to the repository OUTSIDE of the git directory, then delete the directory and re-clone it from the remote repository.

This will re-generate the pack files and everything else that you need so that you can then move your changes back in and commit them.

Answer 3

I had the same problem, using Git from Windows on a mapped Linux drive. I ran "git gc" from Linux and it solved the problem.