I'm using a remote git hosting service (Svnrepository.com). I'm able to access the git repositories successfully while using a git 1.7.x as the client, but as soon as I upgrade the client to git 1.8.x, I am no longer able to push: [the push hangs](https://stackoverflow.com/q/14488077/781723). The hosting service's support claims that this is because they are using an older git server that does not support version 1.8.

1. How do I use git 1.8 as a client, with an older git server?
2. Is there a workaround?
3. Does anyone know what the exact incompatibility is?
4. Does the statement from the support even sound plausible?
For some reason I had thought that git had excellent backward/forward compatibility and there was no reason to fear that upgrading would break git
5. Is there some known incompatibility introduced in the 1.7->1.8 transition that would cause this?

By request, here is a trace with `GIT_TRACE=1`. It looks like it hangs while running `git-http-push`:

```
$ GIT_TRACE=1 git push -v
trace: built-in: git 'push' '-v'
Pushing to https://secure2.svnrepository.com/redacted/redacted/
trace: run_command: 'git-remote-https' 'origin' 'https://secure2.svnrepository.com/redacted/redacted/'
trace: run_command: 'http-push' '--helper-status' '--verbose' 'https://secure2.svnrepository.com/redacted/redacted/' 'refs/heads/master:refs/heads/master'
trace: exec: 'git' 'http-push' '--helper-status' '--verbose' 'https://secure2.svnrepository.com/redacted/redacted/' 'refs/heads/master:refs/heads/master'
trace: exec: 'git-http-push' '--helper-status' '--verbose' 'https://secure2.svnrepository.com/redacted/redacted/' 'refs/heads/master:refs/heads/master'
trace: run_command: 'git-http-push' '--helper-status' '--verbose' 'https://secure2.svnrepository.com/redacted/redacted/' 'refs/heads/master:refs/heads/master'

```

It hangs after the last line of output. (If you prefer, you can also [look at a trace](https://gist.github.com/anonymous/5783653) where I've set both `GIT_TRACE=1` and `GIT_CURL_VERBOSE=1`.)