I'm running Gitolite over the Git repository and I have post-receive hook there written in Python. I need to execute "git" command at git repository directory. There are few lines of code: proc = subprocess.Popen(['git', 'log', '-n1'], cwd='/home/git/repos/testing.git' stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE) proc.communicate() After I make new commit and push to repository, scripts executes and says fatal: Not a git repository: '.' If I run proc = subprocess.Popen(['pwd'], cwd='/home/git/repos/testing.git' stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE) it says, as expected, correct path to git repository (/home/git/repos/testing.git) If I run this script manually from bash, it works correct and show correct output of "git log". What I'm doing wrong?