Cloning a Mercurial repository over SSH

Question

I'm having some difficulty cloning my mercurial repository over ssh.

Here's what I have tried:

hg clone ssh://[email protected]/path/to/projectname projectname

It's giving me this error:

remote: bash: hg: command not found
abort: no suitable response from remote hg!

hg is installed on the server, however.

I was trying to follow the instructions on this website.

Solution 1

Sounds like hg is not on your path. The Mercurial FAQ mentions possible fixes for this issue: FAQ/CommonProblems.

Add the remotecmd value to your Mercurial configuration by opening ~/.hgrc (or Mercurial.ini on Windows) on your client machine and adding the following:

[ui]
remotecmd = /path/to/hg

where /path/to/hg is the path to the hg command on the remote server.

If you're having problems with your Mercurial configuration, you can use the hg showconfig --debug command to obtain a full list of your Mercurial settings along with the path and line number of the configuration file that defines each configuration value.

Solution 2

You need a double // after hostname i.e.:

hg clone ssh://[email protected]//path/to/projectname projectname

Solution 3

Looks like mercurial isn't in your user's PATH on the remote server.

Solution 4

On webfactional I had to add:

export PATH=$PATH:/home/<user>/bin

to .bashrc to get it to work. (also followed the remotecmd advice above)

Solution 5

You can use Sourcetree, TortoiseHg, Mercurial from the terminal, or any client you like to clone your Mercurial repository. These instructions show you how to clone your repository using Mercurial from the terminal.

1. From the repository, click + in the global sidebar and select Clone this repository under Get to work.
2. Copy the clone command (either the SSH format or the HTTPS). If you are using the SSH protocol, ensure your public key is in Bitbucket and loaded on the local system to which you are cloning.
3. From a terminal window, change to the local directory where you want to clone your repository.
4. Paste the command you copied from Bitbucket, for example:
   CLONE OVER HTTPS:
   $ hg clone https://[email protected]/teamsinspace/hg-documentation-tests
   CLONE OVER SSH:
   $ hg clone ssh://[email protected]/teamsinspace/hg-documentation-tests
   If the clone was successful, a new sub-directory appears on your local drive.
   This directory has the same name as the Bitbucket repository that you cloned.
   The clone contains the files and metadata that Mercurial requires to maintain the changes you make to the source files.

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Comments

[Josh]

I followed these directions and added remotecmd = ~/bin/hg to the hgrc file in my project and in my home folder, however it doesnt seem to find that. Adding --remotecmd to the command given in the question works, however. How can I get it so I don't have to type it in every time

[Richard Cook]

Put it in your .hgrc configuration file in the [ui] section. See comment in answer.

[Richard Cook]

You may have conflicts between your system-wide configuration, your user configuration and your project's configuration. Run hg showconfig --debug to see what your configuration is and where the values are derived from.

[Richard Cook]

Have you tried setting remotecmd to the absolute path to hg on your remote machine?

[Richard Cook]

Hmm. Do you set any default settings in the [defaults] section of any of your configuration files? It's possible that these might override/interfere with other configuration settings. Try removing any [defaults] that might relate to the clone command etc. and see if that makes any difference. However, it will most likely be easiest to change your bash profile on the remote system to ensure that hg is on the path.

[Josh]

I haven't touched the defaults. I tried to change the path in ~/.bash_profile from PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin to PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin:/home/jrs0390/bin and PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin:/home/jrs0390/bin/hg but neither of those worked

[Richard Cook]

Try setting your path in .bashrc. Have you played with the PermitUserEnvironment setting in your sshd_config file? This article (serverfault.com/questions/130834/…) discusses various settings and environment variables that might affect your PATH.

[Richard Cook]

Glad we figured it out eventually!

[CenterOrbit]

remotecmd = /usr/local/bin/hg was the line I added to get my 'server' a Mac with mercurial to work with a pull request. Worked like a charm.

[rohtakdev]

add [ui] remotecmd = /path/to/hg as well use above string for connection

[Paolo]

Adding remotecmd to a local .hgrc fixed the path issue. However, in my particular setup remotecmd introduced another error: remote: conq: invalid command syntax. Just adding the PATH value to .bashrc (on webfaction) was enough and really solved any issue for me.

[akauppi]

I'm doing the same as CenterOrbit (= HomeBrew's location for hg). Likely the problem with @Josh back in 2010 has been the use of ~. Should use absolute path - it's pointing at a remote machine anyway.

[gavenkoa]

Why it works only with double // for me? Is this documented?

[lwho]

@gavenkoa: Because the first slash is not part of the path, but just the separator between host and path, so with one slash it's just a path relative to the user's home directory. The second slash makes it an absolute path.

[lwho]

For one-off usage you can also give the remotecmd option on the command line instead of setting it permanently in .hgrc: hg --config ui.remotecmd=/path/to/hg clone ...

[Ryu_hayabusa]

hg clone ssh://host://path-to-repo/ ... if you have a configured hostname in ~.ssh/config