maxBuffer length exceeded

[lomkju]

Hi,
I get the below error when running checkoutv2
I always need to delete the contents of the repo for all build.
_work/api

Deleting the contents of '/home/ubuntu/actions-runner/_work/api/api'
##[error]stderr maxBuffer length exceeded

[lomkju]

Sounds like a permission issue. The issue below seems to be related.
#211 (comment)

[ericsciple]

@lomkju can you enable debug logging hopefully will produce more info

[lomkju]

Adding the below step before the checkout step fixed the problem. It would be a hack until this is fixed or know why this is happening? Maybe the docker image checkouts the branch as root?

    - name: cleanup #https://github.com/actions/checkout/issues/211
      run: |
        sudo chown -R $USER:$USER $GITHUB_WORKSPACE

The logs for the same. The list is huge for permissions denied just pasting the top ones.

Run actions/checkout@v2
Syncing repository: ***********
Getting Git version info
/usr/bin/git config --local --get remote.origin.url
https://github.com/*******/*******
Removing previously created refs, to avoid conflicts
Cleaning the repository
##[warning]Unable to clean or reset the repository. The repository will be recreated instead.
Deleting the contents of '/home/ubuntu/actions-runner/_work/api/api'
##[error]Command failed: rm -rf "/home/ubuntu/actions-runner/_work/api/api/storage"
rm: cannot remove '/home/ubuntu/actions-runner/_work/api/api/storage/************': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove '/home/ubuntu/actions-runner/_work/api/api/storage/l*************': Permission denied

[jokreliable]

in my environment, the runner runs as a "action-runner" user. one of the action uses an docker instance where the user inside is root. When the docker instance generates files, those are owned as root (even from the host perspective).
We solved this by having a "trap" in the entrypoint.sh script that resets ownership when the script ends

fixperms() {
  chown -R `stat --printf=%u /github/workspace/.` /github/workspace/*
}
trap fixperms EXIT

We also see this when we try to rerun workflows (where there is a ton of output in some of those jobs). Clearing the logs before retrying helps but I'm concerned however that we might end up getting even more output from those builds, and hit that limit again.

[pixsaoul]

Hello I am having the exact same issue using game CI action on a self-hosted runner. However this workaround

Adding the below step before the checkout step fixed the problem. It would be a hack until this is fixed or know why this is happening? Maybe the docker image checkouts the branch as root?

    - name: cleanup #https://github.com/actions/checkout/issues/211
      run: |
        sudo chown -R $USER:$USER $GITHUB_WORKSPACE

The logs for the same. The list is huge for permissions denied just pasting the top ones.

Run actions/checkout@v2
Syncing repository: ***********
Getting Git version info
/usr/bin/git config --local --get remote.origin.url
https://github.com/*******/*******
Removing previously created refs, to avoid conflicts
Cleaning the repository
##[warning]Unable to clean or reset the repository. The repository will be recreated instead.
Deleting the contents of '/home/ubuntu/actions-runner/_work/api/api'
##[error]Command failed: rm -rf "/home/ubuntu/actions-runner/_work/api/api/storage"
rm: cannot remove '/home/ubuntu/actions-runner/_work/api/api/storage/************': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove '/home/ubuntu/actions-runner/_work/api/api/storage/l*************': Permission denied

Did not work for me, the cleanup is lasting forever like blocked. Has anyonje found another solution ? (cleaner, or atleast that would not block on my machine ?)

Thanks in advance !

[alexduros]

I'm facing this error as well on a self-hosted runner like @pixsaoul.
I suspect that this error is hiding the original one. Is there a way to have more insights (not only verbose mode which is not really helping) to understand how to work around this. Thx !

##[debug]Added matchers: 'checkout-git'. Problem matchers scan action output for known warning or error strings and report these inline.
Syncing repository: /
::group::Getting Git version info
Getting Git version info
Deleting the contents of '/home/ubuntu/actions-runner/_work//'
::remove-matcher owner=checkout-git,::
##[debug]Removed matchers: 'checkout-git'
Error: stderr maxBuffer length exceeded
##[debug]Node Action run completed with exit code 1
##[debug]Finishing: Run actions/checkout@v2

[na-jakobs]

+1 we are also seeing this issue

[rizvisx]

Is there any update on this issue, I am getting it on a self-hosted runner.

Thanks !!

[jokreliable]

We have seen this when there are permissions issues. tracking down what generate the files with the wrong permission and making sure that the ownership is correct fixed it for us. (we had some docker container based processes running as root, which left behind some leftover temp files, which in turn prevented the following checkout action from cleaning up. not quite sure why that shows up as "maxBuffer length exceeded" (other than we had a LOT of files with that problem). We tracked down which job by going through the _diag/*.log files to identify the problematic job...

[imollm]

My solution has been to add a step in pipeline executing a SSH command to delete project folder in _work folder (first step of them)

[Sunil-Jacob]

Am also facing the Error: stderr maxBuffer length exceeded
Do we have a fix for the same?

[dayananda30]

• 1, we are also facing the same issue.