"Error: Must specify the metadata file" reported with Force.com migration tool

Question

I have brought down a copy of a Salesforce org from a Git repository.

When attempting to deploy it to a sandbox I'm getting the following error (suitably anonymised):

<sf:deploy username="${sf.username}" password="${sf.password}" serverurl="${sf.serverurl}" maxPoll="${sf.maxPoll}" deployRoot="Salesforce\src" checkOnly="true"/>

Result:

*********** DEPLOYMENT FAILED ***********
Request ID: 0AfO00000062GMVKA2

All Component Failures:
1. classes/FooBeforeInsertUpdateABCDEFGHIJOrder_Tst.cls -- Error: Must specify the metadata file
2. classes/afterBeforeInsertUpdateDeleteAccount_Tst.cls -- Error: Must specify the metadata file
3. classes/beforeDeleteABCDEFGHIJKLTransaction_Tst.cls -- Error: Must specify the metadata file
4. classes/AfterBeforeInsertUpdateABCDE_Tst.cls -- Error: Must specify the meta data file

Note: I came to this as an existing project and disavow the trigger structure and naming conventions.

What is odd is that the expected .cls-meta files definitely exist in the deployRoot classes folder next to the corresponding .cls file.

The .cls-meta for all the affected apex classes appears as:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ApexClass xmlns="http://soap.sforce.com/2006/04/metadata">
    <apiVersion>33.0</apiVersion>
    <packageVersions>
        <majorNumber>1</majorNumber>
        <minorNumber>1806</minorNumber>
        <namespace>loan</namespace>
    </packageVersions>
    <status>Active</status>
</ApexClass>

At first I thought it was the apiVersion being 33.0 while the package.xml residing in the src directory had <version>31.0</version>. However, changing the version defined in the package had no effect on the deployment errors. That, and there are other .cls-meta files that successfully deploy and also have v33.0.

I've confirmed that the target org has the loan managed package installed with v 1.1806.4 and first installed version of 1.1799. Again, there are also other Apex Classes with exactly the same .cls-meta files, including the packageVersions elements that are successfully deploying.

---

Using MavensMate with "mm_compile_with_tooling_api" : false I was able to deploy one of the problem Apex classes to the Sandbox. This makes me think the issue is around the Force.com Migration tool creating the package zip from the file system.

Answer 1

DOH! It was a PEBKAC error.

The 4 metadata XML files were indeed missing from source control and my local src folder that the Force.com migration tool was pointed at. I was getting confused with MavensMate pointing at a different directory that had directly pulled metadata from the project rather than source control.

I'll leave this Q&A here as there aren't many search results coming up for

"Error: Must specify the metadata file"

Answer 2

i had the same problem, because my .gitignore in was ignoring some repository files with *.xml, i removed it from .gitignore, after that it solved for me..