PermissionError: [WinError 5] Access is denied: 'team-sortifie.git\\.git\\objects\\pack\\pack-71df0c364b51d2df28502deb6e1c1c7e418bd961.idx'

Question

I am trying to clone a git repository using the repository URL, username and token which I receive from frontend. A folder is created with the name of the repository. After taking essential information from the newly created folder, I am trying to delete the folder using shutil.rmtree. But I get this error:

PermissionError: [WinError 5] Access is denied: 'team-sortifie.git\.git\objects\pack\pack-71df0c364b51d2df28502deb6e1c1c7e418bd961.idx'

Here's my code:

@classmethod
    def fetch_all_branches_with_creation_date(cls, repo_url):
        branch_info_list = []
        repo_name = ''
        repository_users = []

        try:
            # Clone the repository to a temporary directory
            repo_name = os.path.basename(repo_url.rstrip('/'))
            repo = Repo.clone_from(repo_url, repo_name)

            # Fetch repository users
            repository_users = cls.fetch_repository_users_remotely(repo)

            # Get all branches of the repository
            branches = repo.remote().refs

            # Process each branch
            for branch in branches:
                branch_info = {
                    'branch_name': branch.name,
                    'branch_creation_date': branch.commit.authored_datetime.strftime('%Y-%m-%d'),
                    'latest_commit_subject': branch.commit.message,
                    'latest_commit_date': branch.commit.committed_datetime.strftime('%Y-%m-%d'),
                    'author_name': branch.commit.author.name,
                    'tags': [],
                    # Check if the branch is locked
                    'is_locked': cls.is_branch_locked(branch),
                    # Check if the branch is deleted
                    'is_deleted': cls.is_branch_deleted(branch)
                }

                # Get tags associated with the branch
                tags = repo.tags
                for tag in tags:
                    if tag.commit.hexsha.startswith(branch.commit.hexsha):
                        tag_info = {
                            'tag_name': tag.name,
                            'tag_creation_date': tag.commit.committed_datetime.strftime('%Y-%m-%d')
                        }
                        branch_info['tags'].append(tag_info)

                # Append branch information to the list
                branch_info_list.append(branch_info)

        except GitCommandError as e:
            # If there's an error, it could be due to invalid credentials or repository URL
            error_message = Repositoryanalytics.extract_error_message(str(e))
            current_app.logger.debug(error_message)

        finally:
            # Remove the repository directory if it exists
            if repo_name:
                    shutil.rmtree(repo_name)

        return branch_info_list, repository_users

I have already tried these methods:

1. Tried running the server as administrator.
2. Tried rmdir instead of shutil, like this:

        finally:
            # Remove the repository directory if it exists
            if repo_name:
                if configs.platform['isWIN'] == 'TRUE':
                    subprocess.run(
                        ["rmdir", "/Q", "/S", repo_name], shell=True)
                else:
                    shutil.rmtree(repo_name)

3. Right clicked the main backend folder -> Properties -> Security -> Add -> Advanced -> Find Now -> In the search results selected IUSR , then under security tab under the permissions, checked on all the boxes under Allow.

None of these are working. Why exactly is this issue occurring and what can I try now to solve this?

Answer 1

It seems git creates .idx files with read-only permission and that rmtree() has problems removing this kind of files (as mentioned here).

Thus, a solution is to remove permissions on these files (using os.chmod()), then do rmtree().