remotes::install_git fails with corporate https server, but command line git and pak::pkg_install work fine

[mkoohafkan]

I have a secure (HTTPS) corporate Gitea server with R package repositories. We have our own security certificates, so I have configured git to use schannel for the SSL backend. I am unable to install packages via remotes::install_git():

> remotes::install_git("git::https://my-corporate-server/git/DataMgmt/my.package.git")
Error: Failed to install 'unknown package' from Git:
  Command failed (128)
In addition: Warning message:
In system(full, intern = TRUE, ignore.stderr = quiet) :
  running command '"C:\PROGRA~1\Git\cmd\git.exe" ls-remote git::https://my-corporate-server/git/DataMgmt/my.package.git ' had status 128

However, git ls-remote (which is apparently throwing error 128) works fine on the command line:

git ls-remote https://my-corporate-server/git/DataMgmt/my.package.git

76bfc5c209a7e567485e19bf0117fdd920136be3        HEAD
76bfc5c209a7e567485e19bf0117fdd920136be3        refs/heads/master
etc...

and pak::pkg_install() works too:

pak::pkg_install("git::https://my-corporate-server/git/DataMgmt/my.package.git")
Checking for 15 new metadata files                                              
✔ Updated metadata database: 5.57 MB in 14 files.                    
 Found  10  deps for  1/1  pkgs [⠸] Resolving standard (CRAN/BioC) packages
ℹ Updating metadata database                                               
✔ Updating metadata database ... done
 Found  10  deps for  1/1  pkgs [⠦] Resolving standard (CRAN/BioC) packages 
→ Will update 1 package.
→ Will download 1 package with unknown size.
+ my.package 0.10-1 → 0.10-1 [bld][cmp][dl]
? Do you want to continue (Y/n) y
ℹ Getting 1 pkg with unknown size
✔ Got my.package 0.10-1 (source) (0 B)
✔ Downloaded 1 package (0 B) in 343ms
Installing...
ℹ Packaging my.package 0.10-1
Installing...
✔ Packaged my.package 0.10-1 (1.7s)
ℹ Building my.package 0.10-1                                                                          
✔ Built my.package 0.10-1 (3.8s)
✔ Installed my.package 0.10-1 (git::https://my-corporate-server/git/DataMgmt/my.package.git@76bfc5c) (176ms)

Is this a bug? A setting I'm missing?

[gaborcsardi]

I don't know. You can try to debug this and see the actual output from git.

[mkoohafkan]

debugging leads to remotes:::git(), the call is

result <- in_dir(path, system(full, intern = TRUE, ignore.stderr = quiet))
## Warning message:
## In system(full, intern = TRUE, ignore.stderr = quiet) :
##   running command '"C:\PROGRA~1\Git\cmd\git.exe" ls-remote https://my-corporate-server/git/DataMgmt/my.package.git ' had status 128

result
## character(0)
## attr(,"status")
## [1] 128

# taking a closer look at the function call system(full, intern = TRUE, ignore.stderr = quiet)
full
## [1] "\"C:\\PROGRA~1\\Git\\cmd\\git.exe\" ls-remote https://my-corporate-server/git/DataMgmt/my.package.git "

Which works just fine when I paste it into a command prompt.

[mkoohafkan]

OK I should have toggled that quiet argument to FALSE. It seems to be related to my corporate certificates:

result <- in_dir(path, system(full, intern = TRUE, ignore.stderr = FALSE)
fatal: unable to access 'https://my-corporate-server/git/DataMgmt/my.package.git/': SSL certificate problem: self-signed certificate in certificate chain
Warning message:
In system(full, intern = TRUE, ignore.stderr = FALSE) :
  running command '"C:\PROGRA~1\Git\cmd\git.exe" ls-remote https://my-corporate-sever/git/DataMgmt/my.package.git ' had status 128

But remotes is using my git install, which has the following setting:

git config --global http.sslBackend
schannel

So why isn't remotes using schannel? is remotes setting its own git config options somewhere?

[gaborcsardi]

So why isn't remotes using schannel? is remotes setting its own git config options somewhere?

I would think not, but I don't know, sorry. Try calling git ls-remote from system() to see if that fails as well. If yes, then this is not anything that remotes is doing.

[mkoohafkan]

ok, so it appears that the system call is not respecting the user .gitconfig file. the system .gitconfig file in the install directory is still set to use openssl.

I can reproduce this by calling

shell.exec("cmd")

from the debug environment of the remotes::git() call, which opens a console window that is not respecting my user .gitconfig file.

pak is somehow able to call git in a way that captures the user configuration, or otherwise set git to use schannel.

[mkoohafkan]

This seems to have mysteriously resolved itself, git is now finding the user configuration.