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When I am trying to run git commit -m 'message here' I am getting following error.

fatal: cannot exec '.git/hooks/prepare-commit-msg': Permission denied

This issue started after when I created a new partition on my ubuntu and cloned the repo in it.

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3 Answers 3

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You'll need to make your file executable, the below code snippet will make the file executable for the owner, the group and the world:

$ chmod +x .git/hooks/prepare-commit-msg
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    Is the OP probably talking about an older version of git? With git 2.29.2 I'm getting hint: The '.git/hooks/prepare-commit-msg' hook was ignored because it's not set as executable. and git commit still succeeds. Or is it a shell-related issue, not git?
    – terrorrussia-keeps-killing
    Commented Dec 21, 2020 at 14:58
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    @fluffy I can see that a check for non executable files was introduced in 2.13 see the commit github.com/git/git/commit/… I'm not sure which version OP is running.
    – Andreas Louv
    Commented Dec 21, 2020 at 15:13
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    The message was added later, in 2.14.3 github.com/git/git/commit/…
    – Andreas Louv
    Commented Dec 21, 2020 at 15:15
  • I can see this phenomenon too, and I'm wondering where this hook is originating from, what creates it and why it is missing the step of making it executable. Any idea?
    – Hendrik Wiese
    Commented Oct 13, 2021 at 5:23
  • @HendrikWiese You created the file, either by creating it manually, by having used the init.templatedir, (--templatedir) when cloning / initializing a repository. Or if you have run a program that creates these hooks.
    – Andreas Louv
    Commented Oct 13, 2021 at 9:31
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For me, chmod +x for those git hooks did not help and I had to remove the file (move it to {filename}.bak).

I suppose this isn't a great solution, though.

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For me I was getting the error fatal: cannot exec '.git/hooks/pre-push': Permission denied.

Applying Andreas's answer to this error message, I tried $ chmod +x .git/hooks/pre-push, and that fixed it. The subsequent commit and push commands went through successfully.

Apparently such fatal: cannot exec ... : Permission denied errors involving both git hooks can be resolved in the same way.

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