I got git problem: error: unable to create temporary sha1 filename when pushing to a remote repository. The fix is rather easy.
On both your local and remote repositories perform the following magic:
git fsck
git prune
git repack
git fsckThe last fsck should not report any problems.
You may also need to
chown git:git /pah/to/reposon your server. But this is most likely not the reason for the above error.This error message can be caused by incorrect ownership of git files in the local repo as well.
I personally ran into it during a git commit on a local copy. I eventually tracked it down to the fact that someone had erroneously done a git commit as root at some point. Recursively chowning the project_name/.git directory to its correct owner (in this case, the owner of the local copy) fixed the problem, and the fsck/repack sequence cleaned out the remaining symptoms.
@Robert: Great tip! Thanks!