:distribution:bwc:maintenance:createClone error during build

Elastic Stack Elasticsearch
1

while trying to go through the elasticsearch build process i am getting error related to task :distribution:bwc:maintenance:createClone, it seems to have something with backward compatibility check (just guessing) and i have no idea what do? the full gradle error is something like

=======================================
Elasticsearch Build Hamster says Hello!
  Gradle Version        : 8.13
  OS Info               : Linux 6.11.0-24-generic (amd64)
  JDK Version           : 21.0.6+7-LTS (Eclipse Temurin)
  JAVA_HOME             : /home/jdk/.gradle/jdks/eclipse_adoptium-21-amd64-linux.2
  Random Testing Seed   : 7BCF5AC3A137091C
  In FIPS 140 mode      : false
=======================================

> Task :distribution:bwc:maintenance:createClone FAILED
Output for git:
fatal: repository '/home/user/Desktop/test/elasticsearch-8.17.4' does not exist


> Task :libs:secure-sm:compileJava
Note: Some input files use or override a deprecated API that is marked for removal.
Note: Recompile with -Xlint:removal for details.

[Incubating] Problems report is available at: file:///home/user/Desktop/test/elasticsearch-8.17.4/build/reports/problems/problems-report.html

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':distribution:bwc:maintenance:createClone'.
> Process 'git [clone, /home/user/Desktop/test/elasticsearch-8.17.4, /home/user/Desktop/test/elasticsearch-8.17.4/distribution/bwc/maintenance/build/bwc/checkout-7.17]' finished with non-zero exit value 128

* Try:
> Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace.
> Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output.
> Get more help at https://help.gradle.org.

BUILD FAILED in 21m 48s
29 actionable tasks: 10 executed, 19 up-to-date
2

Because i had not cloned the elasticsearch repo and just downloaded the zip file the /home/user/Desktop/test/elasticsearch-8.17.4 was not a git repo so it could not be cloned for whatever purpose that that this cloning step must be done. The solution was either to initiate a git repo manually or just instead of downloading the zip file clone the project from github.