>> FWIW, I just tried it with >> >> git clone --shared ~otheruser/nongnu >> >> and got the same result. >> I also tried with another repository, still with the same result (tho >> different pack.idx names, of course). > > I've tried several times to reproduce this, but I am unable to do so. You may > need to provide the tarball with ~otheruser/nongnu contents for someone to be > able to properly debug this. OK, you can try with the following tarball: https://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~monnier/nongnu.tar.gz untar it (as "otheruser") into ~otheruser (which will create ~otheruser/nongnu) and then do (as your normal user): git clone --shared ~otheruser/nongnu cd nongnu git gc It "worked" (i.e. gave me the unlink failure warnings) for me, so hopefully it will "work" for others as well. The `git clone` will likely give you some message about HEAD not being found, which is normal. Stefan