# :distribution:bwc:maintenance:createClone error during build

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/bwccreateclone-error-during-build/377815>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [May 5, 2025, 1:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/bwccreateclone-error-during-build/377815 "2025-05-05T13:46:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jack\_a](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jack_a/32/133082_2.png) [@jack\_a](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jack_a)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 1:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/bwccreateclone-error-during-build/377815/1 "2025-05-05T13:46:18Z")

</div>

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

```auto
=======================================
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

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jack\_a](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jack_a/32/133082_2.png) [@jack\_a](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jack_a)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 8:28am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/bwccreateclone-error-during-build/377815/2 "2025-05-07T08:28:00Z")

</div>

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.