Fix git bad line length character

Paul Sweeney · 5th November 2021

quicktips   git   ssh

The error Git Remote: Error: fatal: protocol error: bad line length character: {some 4 chars} indicates that the git ssh command has got back an invalid response, namely some characters where it was expecting a 4-byte length value.

This is probably due to an error and the 4 chars in the error message will be the first 4 chars of the error response.

To investigate the error further to find the fix needed …

  • Find the relevant remote url and repo path with git remote -v. The value will likely be something like e.g. git@ssh.dev.azure.com:v3/YouOrg/YourProject/YourRepo.
  • Before the : is the host, after it is the repoPath.
  • issue the command ssh {host} git-receive-pack {repoPath} using the values from above
  • this will reveal the true error message - likely something to do with auth or networking failure

Thanks

Solution found in this StackOverflow response