How to fix Error: The process '/usr/bin/git' failed with exit code 128 in Git

name: CI
on: [push, pull_request]

permissions:
  contents: read  # Required for checkout

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

permissions:
  contents: read
  packages: read  # If accessing GitHub Packages

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4
    with:
      token: ${{ secrets.PAT_TOKEN }}  # Personal Access Token with repo scope

# Incorrect - branch might not exist
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
  with:
    ref: feature/nonexistent-branch  # This will fail if branch doesn't exist

# Correct - use default or verify branch exists
- uses: actions/checkout@v4  # Checks out the triggering ref

# Or explicitly check the correct branch
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
  with:
    ref: main

# For PR workflows - checkout the PR merge commit
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
  with:
    ref: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha }}

# Or the PR branch
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
  with:
    ref: ${{ github.head_ref }}

- name: Debug ref
  run: |
    echo "github.ref: ${{ github.ref }}"
    echo "github.sha: ${{ github.sha }}"
    echo "github.head_ref: ${{ github.head_ref }}"

- uses: actions/checkout@v4
  with:
    submodules: true  # or 'recursive' for nested submodules
    token: ${{ secrets.PAT_TOKEN }}  # PAT with access to submodule repos

- uses: actions/checkout@v4
  with:
    submodules: true
    ssh-key: ${{ secrets.SUBMODULE_SSH_KEY }}

- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Convert submodule URLs
  run: |
    git config --global url."https://github.com/".insteadOf "[email protected]:"
    git submodule update --init --recursive
  env:
    GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.PAT_TOKEN }}

on:
  pull_request_target:  # Runs in the context of the base repo
    types: [opened, synchronize]

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          ref: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha }}

# For safe operations (checkout, build)
on: pull_request

# For operations needing secrets (deploy, comment)
on:
  workflow_run:
    workflows: ["Build"]
    types: [completed]

- name: Check if fork
  run: |
    if [ "${{ github.event.pull_request.head.repo.full_name }}" != "${{ github.repository }}" ]; then
      echo "This is a fork PR"
    fi

# Old - may have issues
- uses: actions/checkout@v2

# Current - recommended
- uses: actions/checkout@v4

# Pin to exact version
- uses: actions/[email protected]

# Or use major version (recommended)
- uses: actions/checkout@v4

- uses: actions/checkout@v4
  with:
    lfs: true

# Skip LFS files if not needed
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
  with:
    lfs: false

# Or fetch only specific LFS files
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Fetch specific LFS files
  run: |
    git lfs pull --include="path/to/needed/files/*"

- uses: actions/checkout@v4
  with:
    lfs: true
- name: Verify LFS
  run: |
    git lfs ls-files
    git lfs status

- uses: actions/checkout@v4
  with:
    fetch-depth: 0  # Fetch all history for all branches and tags

# Fetch last 10 commits
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
  with:
    fetch-depth: 10

- uses: actions/checkout@v4
  with:
    fetch-depth: 0
    fetch-tags: true  # Ensure tags are fetched

- uses: actions/checkout@v4
  with:
    filter: blob:none  # Don't fetch file contents initially

- uses: actions/checkout@v4
  env:
    GIT_TRACE: 1
    GIT_CURL_VERBOSE: 1
    GIT_TRACE_PACKET: 1

# Or for more detail
- name: Debug checkout
  run: |
    GIT_TRACE=2 GIT_CURL_VERBOSE=1 git clone https://github.com/${{ github.repository }}.git
  env:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

- name: Check token scopes
  run: |
    curl -sS -f -I -H "Authorization: token ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}" https://api.github.com | grep -i x-oauth-scopes

- name: List refs
  run: |
    git ls-remote https://github.com/${{ github.repository }}.git
  env:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

- name: Manual clone
  run: |
    git clone --depth 1 https://x-access-token:${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}@github.com/${{ github.repository }}.git repo
    cd repo && git status