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Git fails in WSL project on Windows: "detected dubious ownership in repository"

Ivan Pajic
Updated

Problem

When opening a WSL project in a JetBrains IDE running on Windows, Git operations fail with:

fatal: detected dubious ownership in repository at '<path>'

Cause

The IDE uses the Windows Git executable (git.exe) instead of the Git binary from the WSL distribution. The Windows Git binary sees the WSL filesystem path as owned by a different user, which triggers the safe.directory check and aborts the operation.

The IDE does not auto-detect or switch to the WSL Git binary when the project is located on the WSL filesystem (\\wsl$\<distro>\... or \\wsl.localhost\<distro>\...).

Resolution

Option 1: Point the IDE at the WSL Git binary (recommended)

  1. Open Settings (Ctrl+Alt+S) | Version Control | Git.
  2. In the Path to Git executable field, enter the path to the Git binary inside the WSL distribution, for example: \\wsl$\<distro-name>\usr\bin\git.
  3. Click OK.

To apply the same setting to all newly created projects:

  1. Open File | New Projects Setup | Settings for New Projects....
  2. Repeat the steps above.

Option 2: Mark all directories as safe (global workaround)

Run the following command in a terminal to disable the safe-directory check for every repository:

git config --global safe.directory '*'

This bypasses the ownership check for all repositories. It does not switch the IDE to the WSL Git binary.

Additional Information

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