joey@darkstar:~/tmp/ben/mom4>git remote add foo localhost:/tmp/foo
joey@darkstar:~/tmp/ben/mom4>git-annex init
init
  Unable to parse git config from foo

  Remote foo does not have git-annex installed; setting annex-ignore

  This could be a problem with the git-annex installation on the remote. Please make sure that git-annex-shell is available in PATH when you ssh into the remote. Once you have fixed the git-annex installation, run: git annex enableremote foo
ok

This message is wrong, git-annex-shell is installed. But since /tmp/foo does not exist, it errors out.

Maybe git-annex-shell configlist should output nothing instead of erroring out in this situation? --Joey