$ git --version git version 1.8.5.6 $ if [ "$LATEST_GIT" = "1" ]; then ... export PATH="/tmp/git:$PATH" fi .... make -j 8 ... $ git --version git version 2.11.0-rc0 So you compile 2.11.0-rc0 yourself, but you do not install it, instead the $PATH is pointed to /tmp/git instead, however the later calls fail with: Can't open /home/travis/libexec/git-core/git-sh-i18n which is where 1.8.5.6 is installed. So you're running into an internationalization problem between 2 very different versions of Git (1.8 seems to be ancient) Not sure if i can offer advice except from "Don't do that, instead install Git properly". ;) Thanks, Stefan