git clone/push collision

I'm unsure if this is a "problem" with git but the associated error/warning messages can be concerning to uninitiated users. It occurs when someone starts a clone and someone else does a push while the clone is processing. In 1.5.3.8 we are seeing the following messages after the clone completes (the push was to the b2 branch):

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jwilliams> git clone /nfs_share/repo.git my_clone.git
Initialized empty Git repository in 
/export/jwilliams/test/my_clone.git/.git/
5294402 blocks
Checking 6156 files out...
  100% (6156/6156) done

jwilliams> cd my_clone.git/

jwilliams> git branch
error: refs/remotes/origin/b2 does not point to a valid object!
* fwdev

jwilliams> git pull
error: refs/remotes/origin/b2 does not point to a valid object!
error: refs/remotes/origin/b2 does not point to a valid object!
remote: Generating pack...
remote: Counting objects: 1
remote: Done counting 1831 objects.
Result has 1288 objects.
remote: Deltifying 1288 objects...
remote:  100% (1288/1288) done
Indexing 1288 objects...
remote: Total 1288 (delta 855), reused 806 (delta 406)
  100% (1288/1288) done
Resolving 855 deltas...
  100% (855/855) done
127 objects were added to complete this thin pack.
Already up-to-date.

jwilliams> git branch
* fwdev

jwilliams> git pull Already up-to-date.

=====

As you can see, the "does not point to a valid object" messages go away after the subsequent pull. This apparently synced things up properly. We clone a very large repo off of NFS which is slow so this particular collision happens frequently. This type of message leaves users feeling uncomfortable.

In 1.5.4.2 this "window" appears much smaller. When it does appear to hit, the messages and behavior are a little different:

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jwilliams> git clone /nfs_share/repo.git my_clone.git Initialized empty Git repository in /export/jwilliams/test/my_clone.git/.git/ 5294419 blocks error: Trying to write ref refs/remotes/origin/b2 with nonexistant object 9bf5a068f8ba817b93e1ef4e3904323833c948d8 fatal: Cannot update the ref 'refs/remotes/origin/b2'. Checking out files: 100% (6156/6156), done.

jwilliams> cd my_clone.git/

jwilliams> git branch
* fwdev

jwilliams> git pull
remote: Counting objects: 1839, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (890/890), done.
remote: Total 1296 (delta 902), reused 764 (delta 406)
Receiving objects: 100% (1296/1296), 21.82 MiB | 8845 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (902/902), completed with 122 local objects.
 From /nfs_share/repo.git/
  * [new branch]      b2 -> origin/b2
Already up-to-date.

jwilliams> git branch
* fwdev

jwilliams> git pull Already up-to-date.

=====

In 1.5.4.2 the subsequent pull does seem to sync things up properly as well.

In both the 1.5.3.8 and 1.5.4.2 cases the b2 branch is unavailable to work on until the subsequent pull.

I'm just curious to know if this behavior is known and if it is considered "normal".

- Josh