It took me a while to realize, thanks to the NODE_ENV=development and --verbose, that the reason service build was failing was due to the hardcoded origin for the deploy repo, whereas mine was called gerrit. It should be documented somewhere, and on error it should explain what the cause is.
yurik@steppenwolf:~/wmf/graphoid/graphoid$ NODE_ENV=development ./server.js rebuild --deploy-repo -f --verbose
# RUNNING: git config deploy.dir
(in /home/yurik/wmf/graphoid/graphoid)
# RUNNING: docker build -t graphoiddeploy .
(in /home/yurik/wmf/graphoid/graphoid)
Sending build context to Docker daemon 330.2 kB
Step 0 : FROM ubuntu:14.04
---> 1d073211c498
Step 1 : RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y nodejs nodejs-legacy npm git libjpeg62-dev libcairo2-dev libgif-dev libpango1.0-dev && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
---> Using cache
---> 5026d7b0b3c1
Step 2 : RUN groupadd -g 1000 -r rungroup && useradd -m -r -g rungroup -u 1000 runuser
---> Using cache
---> c5968b4c09bb
Step 3 : USER runuser
---> Using cache
---> 2fd0a87e9511
Step 4 : ENV HOME /home/runuser LINK g++
---> Using cache
---> 8a3e6a57b1c8
Step 5 : CMD /usr/bin/npm install --production && /usr/bin/npm install heapdump
---> Using cache
---> ef3600b01be8
Successfully built ef3600b01be8
# RUNNING: git config deploy.name
(in /home/yurik/wmf/graphoid/graphoid)
# RUNNING: git checkout master
(in /home/yurik/wmf/graphoid/deploy)
# RUNNING: git fetch origin
(in /home/yurik/wmf/graphoid/deploy)
Possibly unhandled Error: 128
at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/home/yurik/wmf/graphoid/graphoid/node_modules/service-runner/lib/docker.js:68:21)
at ChildProcess.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:98:17)
at maybeClose (child_process.js:743:16)
at Socket.<anonymous> (child_process.js:956:11)
at Socket.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:95:17)
at Pipe.close (net.js:466:12)
From previous event:
at promisedSpawn (/home/yurik/wmf/graphoid/graphoid/node_modules/service-runner/lib/docker.js:47:19)
at promisedGit (/home/yurik/wmf/graphoid/graphoid/node_modules/service-runner/lib/docker.js:227:16)
at chainedPgit (/home/yurik/wmf/graphoid/graphoid/node_modules/service-runner/lib/docker.js:235:16)
at /home/yurik/wmf/graphoid/graphoid/node_modules/service-runner/lib/docker.js:240:20
From previous event:
at chainedPgit (/home/yurik/wmf/graphoid/graphoid/node_modules/service-runner/lib/docker.js:236:10)
at promisedGit.then.then.opts.submodule (/home/yurik/wmf/graphoid/graphoid/node_modules/service-runner/lib/docker.js:250:16)
From previous event:
at updateDeploy (/home/yurik/wmf/graphoid/graphoid/node_modules/service-runner/lib/docker.js:246:6)
at /home/yurik/wmf/graphoid/graphoid/node_modules/service-runner/lib/docker.js:490:20
From previous event:
at main (/home/yurik/wmf/graphoid/graphoid/node_modules/service-runner/lib/docker.js:488:6)
at /home/yurik/wmf/graphoid/graphoid/node_modules/service-runner/lib/base_service.js:51:20
at process._tickCallback (node.js:415:13)
From previous event:
at Master.run (/home/yurik/wmf/graphoid/graphoid/node_modules/service-runner/lib/base_service.js:40:6)
at ServiceRunner.run (/home/yurik/wmf/graphoid/graphoid/node_modules/service-runner/service-runner.js:31:23)
at Object.<anonymous> (/home/yurik/wmf/graphoid/graphoid/server.js:12:28)
at Module._compile (module.js:456:26)
at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:474:10)
at Module.load (module.js:356:32)
at Function.Module._load (module.js:312:12)
at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:497:10)
at startup (node.js:119:16)
at node.js:902:3