Re: Git push tries to delete branch twice and fails

From: Ondra Medek <xmedeko@gmail.com>
Date: Jun 6, 2025, 11:57 UTC
Message-ID: <CAJsoDaHQnwJTnWDT3eeTsH-nC9Tbt019T4W0pocqBSH80_FYqg@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAJsoDaGjF=2ZGwGdnx+M-1MdtfDWS2uE8+EAZMuu73cXjhWb7Q@mail.gmail.com>

Ah, got it, I have in .git/config the same path twice (I did it unintentionally by manual edit):

[remote "origin"]
    url = file:///c:/...
    url = file:///c:/...
    fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*

Sorry for bothering you Andy

On Fri, 6 Jun 2025 at 13:50, Ondra Medek <xmedeko@gmail.com> wrote:

Show 68 quoted lines

>
> Yes, I have witten it's just in one local working tree. When I do `git
> clone` of the same repository then it's OK. So I do not know how to
> simulate it.
>
> Therefore, the workaround is simple - I may just delete the local dir
> and clone the repo again. But I would like just to know what happened
> and if it's possible to fix it without cloning if the same issue hit
> some of our customers.
> ---
> Andy
>
> On Fri, 6 Jun 2025 at 13:43, Kristoffer Haugsbakk
> <kristofferhaugsbakk@fastmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Fri, Jun 6, 2025, at 13:20, Ondra Medek wrote:
> > > I have a git 2.49.0 (Windows) and one local working tree is kind of
> > > broken, when I try:
> > >
> > > $ git push origin branch1
> > > Total 0 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0 (from 0)
> > > To file:///c:/...
> > >  * [new branch]            branch1 -> branch1
> > > Everything up-to-date
> > >
> > > $ git push origin :branch1
> > > To file:///c:/...
> > >  - [deleted]               branch1
> > > error: unable to delete 'branch1': remote ref does not exist
> > > error: failed to push some refs to 'file:///c:/...'
> >
> > I was note able to reproduce on Git 2.49.0 on Linux.  Both through a
> > HTTPS remote as well as a local (filesystem) remote.
> >
> > ```
> > $ ./git diagnose
> > Collecting diagnostic info
> >
> > git version 2.49.0
> > cpu: x86_64
> > built from commit: 683c54c999c301c2cd6f715c411407c413b1d84e
> > sizeof-long: 8
> > sizeof-size_t: 8
> > shell-path: /bin/sh
> > libcurl: 7.81.0
> > OpenSSL: OpenSSL 3.0.2 15 Mar 2022
> > zlib: 1.2.11
> > Repository root: <path>
> > Available space on '<path>': 202.28 GiB (mount flags 0x1000)
> > ```
> >
> > > So, the same `git push` command first deletes the branch and then
> > > fails because it does not exist. It worked well until something
> > > happened and since that time it's broken. I've tried `git gc
> > > --aggressive --prune`, but it didn't help.
> > >
> > > When I do `git clone` of the same repository to another local working
> > > tree, then it's OK - the branch is deleted without the error.
> > >
> > > Is this a Git bug? Is it possible to fix the local working tree except
> > > for a new git clone?
> > >
> > > Note: I am developing an app which uses (creates and deletes) custom
> > > refs often. So, I've hit this bug when trying to delete a custom ref.
> > > I have cleared all custom refs and tried that with Git branches.
> > >
> > > Cheers
> > > Andy