mrt add: pathspec <tag> did not match any file(s) known to git

[udondan]

I stumbled upon a problem with adding a package.

A simple mrt add <package> would permanently fail while it works for other packages or even for older tags of the same package.

mrt add <package> and mrt add <package> --pkg-version 1.5.4 (=current) failed but mrt add <package> --pkg-version 1.5.2 worked. There was nothing wrong in <package>, no change since the last tag, which could cause such behavior. Others could not reproduce the problem, so it was a local problem.

The package I had this problem with was bootstrap-select:

$ mrt add bootstrap-select
✓ bootstrap-select
    tag: https://github.com/amrali/bootstrap-select-meteor.git#v1.5.4
ERROR: 1 Command failed: error: pathspec 'v1.5.4' did not match any file(s) known to git.


STDOUT:  

STDERR: error: pathspec 'v1.5.4' did not match any file(s) known to git.



/usr/local/lib/node_modules/meteorite/lib/sources/git.js:181
            self.checkoutType + ": " + (self.commit || self.head);
                                     ^
There was a problem checking out tag: v1.5.4

On my search for a solution I found others having the same issues with other random packages:

• https://github.com/mangasocial/meteor-accounts-ui-bootstrap-3/issues/42
• mrt update failed  SachaG/meteor-spin#12

The "solution" was to uninstall and re-install meteorite.

rm -rf ~/.meteorite
sudo npm uninstall -g meteorite
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/node_modules/meteorite/  # to be sure
sudo npm install -g meteorite

---

Now that I have written this and look at the guidelines for contributing I guess this problem would be covered with "Sometimes git can get into broken states if weird things happen". It's too late now for me to see if the suggested solution there would solve the problem. I'm still filing this report, so someone searching in meteorite issues can find the solution.

[tmeasday]

Haha, thanks @udondan. I think this is exactly that problem. The first line of your solution (which is equivalent to mrt uninstall --system) was almost certainly the solution.