The git plugin is unable to find revisions to build in environments where the current user is not Jenkins.
This problem was introduced in git 2.5.1, 2 releases, and was not present in the 2.5.0 release.
On builds where the build user is not Jenkins (the slave is running as a different user), the job aborts due to git errors.
e.g:
14:48:47 Started by user jmellor
14:48:47 Starting limited count build: 1
14:48:47 [EnvInject] - Loading node environment variables.
14:48:47 Building remotely on robot-testbuilder-1 (robot-testbuilder) in workspace /var/lib/jenkins/workspace/soc-dashboard_dev_nightly
14:48:50 Wiping out workspace first.
14:48:50 Cloning the remote Git repository
14:48:50 Cloning repository ssh://jmellor@gerrit.internal:29418/socdash/soc-dashboard.git
14:48:50 > /usr/bin/git init /var/lib/jenkins/workspace/soc-dashboard_dev_nightly # timeout=10
14:48:50 Fetching upstream changes from ssh://jmellor@gerrit.internal:29418/socdash/soc-dashboard.git
14:48:50 > /usr/bin/git --version # timeout=10
14:48:50 > /usr/bin/git -c core.askpass=true fetch --tags --progress ssh://jmellor@gerrit.internal:29418/socdash/soc-dashboard.git refs/heads/develop
14:49:13 > /usr/bin/git config remote.origin.url ssh://jmellor@gerrit.internal:29418/socdash/soc-dashboard.git # timeout=10
14:49:14 > /usr/bin/git config --add remote.origin.fetch refs/heads/develop # timeout=10
14:49:14 > /usr/bin/git config remote.origin.url ssh://jmellor@gerrit.internal:29418/socdash/soc-dashboard.git # timeout=10
14:49:14 Fetching upstream changes from ssh://jmellor@gerrit.internal:29418/socdash/soc-dashboard.git
14:49:14 > /usr/bin/git -c core.askpass=true fetch --tags --progress ssh://jmellor@gerrit.internal:29418/socdash/soc-dashboard.git refs/heads/develop
14:49:14 > /usr/bin/git rev-parse origin/develop^
{commit} # timeout=10
14:49:14 > /usr/bin/git rev-parse develop^{commit}
# timeout=10
14:49:14 ERROR: Couldn't find any revision to build. Verify the repository and branch configuration for this job.
14:49:14 Retrying after 10 seconds
14:49:24 Wiping out workspace first.
14:49:24 Cloning the remote Git repository
14:49:24 Cloning repository ssh://jmellor@gerrit.internal:29418/socdash/soc-dashboard.git
14:49:24 > /usr/bin/git init /var/lib/jenkins/workspace/soc-dashboard_dev_nightly # timeout=10
14:49:24 Fetching upstream changes from ssh://jmellor@gerrit.internal:29418/socdash/soc-dashboard.git
14:49:24 > /usr/bin/git --version # timeout=10
14:49:24 > /usr/bin/git -c core.askpass=true fetch --tags --progress ssh://jmellor@gerrit.internal:29418/socdash/soc-dashboard.git refs/heads/develop
14:49:46 > /usr/bin/git config remote.origin.url ssh://jmellor@gerrit.internal:29418/socdash/soc-dashboard.git # timeout=10
14:49:46 > /usr/bin/git config --add remote.origin.fetch refs/heads/develop # timeout=10
14:49:46 > /usr/bin/git config remote.origin.url ssh://jmellor@gerrit.internal:29418/socdash/soc-dashboard.git # timeout=10
14:49:46 Fetching upstream changes from ssh://jmellor@gerrit.internal:29418/socdash/soc-dashboard.git
14:49:46 > /usr/bin/git -c core.askpass=true fetch --tags --progress ssh://jmellor@gerrit.internal:29418/socdash/soc-dashboard.git refs/heads/develop
14:49:46 > /usr/bin/git rev-parse origin/develop^
{commit} # timeout=10
14:49:46 > /usr/bin/git rev-parse develop^{commit}
# timeout=10
14:49:46 ERROR: Couldn't find any revision to build. Verify the repository and branch configuration for this job.
My current workaround is to revert all the way back to git plugin 2.4.4 (which I had laying around), and the fault does not exhibit anymore. This build is also known to have been working for months with the git plugin 2.5.0 release.