Running Python Cookiecutter to get template from GitHub results in subprocess.CalledProcessError, returned non-zero exit status 128

Question

While running Cookiecutter, I encountered the following error message:

C:\Users\Al>cookiecutter https://github.com/asweigart/cookiecutter-basicpythonproject
You've downloaded C:\Users\Al\.cookiecutters\cookiecutter-basicpythonproject before. Is it okay to delete and re-download it? [yes]:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\Al\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\lib\runpy.py", line 193, in _run_module_as_main
    "__main__", mod_spec)
  File "C:\Users\Al\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\lib\runpy.py", line 85, in _run_code
    exec(code, run_globals)
  File "C:\Users\Al\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python37\site-packages\cookiecutter\__main__.py", line 9, in <module>
    main(prog_name="cookiecutter")
  File "C:\Users\Al\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\lib\site-packages\click\core.py", line 722, in __call__
    return self.main(*args, **kwargs)
  File "C:\Users\Al\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\lib\site-packages\click\core.py", line 697, in main
    rv = self.invoke(ctx)
  File "C:\Users\Al\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\lib\site-packages\click\core.py", line 895, in invoke
    return ctx.invoke(self.callback, **ctx.params)
  File "C:\Users\Al\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\lib\site-packages\click\core.py", line 535, in invoke
    return callback(*args, **kwargs)
  File "C:\Users\Al\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python37\site-packages\cookiecutter\cli.py", line 120, in main
    password=os.environ.get('COOKIECUTTER_REPO_PASSWORD')
  File "C:\Users\Al\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python37\site-packages\cookiecutter\main.py", line 63, in cookiecutter
    password=password
  File "C:\Users\Al\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python37\site-packages\cookiecutter\repository.py", line 103, in determine_repo_dir
    no_input=no_input,
  File "C:\Users\Al\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python37\site-packages\cookiecutter\vcs.py", line 99, in clone
    stderr=subprocess.STDOUT,
  File "C:\Users\Al\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\lib\subprocess.py", line 389, in check_output
    **kwargs).stdout
  File "C:\Users\Al\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\lib\subprocess.py", line 481, in run
    output=stdout, stderr=stderr)
subprocess.CalledProcessError: Command '['git', 'clone', 'https://github.com/asweigart/cookiecutter-basicpythonproject']' returned non-zero exit status 128.

What causes this error message and how can I fix it?

Answer 1

One cause of this is your computer's clock is inaccurate, causing SSL errors when Cookiecutter tries to connect to GitHub.com to download the template. Correct your system clock and try the command again.