Re: windows: error cannot lock ref ... unable to create lock

From: Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com>
Date: Jun 18, 2019, 17:01 UTC
Message-ID: <CAPig+cTFfhBz+xiq6VAMNOW4OTvByHJ1g5oF=RTTh_buA+nUQA@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <CA+dzEB=iOsfuZQ5Z8uXO+k6E3WczkLX64yWUpTm1NZBjdd47kg@mail.gmail.com>

On Tue, Jun 18, 2019 at 12:39 PM Anthony Sottile <asottile@umich.edu> wrote:

Show 8 quoted lines

> + git fetch origin --tags
> Unpacking objects: 100% (10/10), done.
> From https://github.com/asottile-archive/git-windows-branch-test
>  * [new branch]      master     -> origin/master
> error: cannot lock ref 'refs/remotes/origin/pr/aux': Unable to create
> 'C:/Users/IEUser/x/x/.git/refs/remotes/origin/pr/aux.lock': No such
> file or directory
>  ! [new branch]      pr/aux     -> origin/pr/aux  (unable to update local ref)

AUX is a reserved[1] filename on Windows. Quoting from that source:

    Do not use the following reserved names for the name of a file:
    CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, COM7,
    COM8, COM9, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, LPT5, LPT6, LPT7, LPT8, and
    LPT9. Also avoid these names followed immediately by an
    extension...

The default Git "ref store" is filesystem-based, so a branch named "aux" is problematic. Other ref store implementations would not be subject to this limitation (though I'm not sure what the state of the others is -- someone with more knowledge can probably answer that).

[1]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/FileIO/naming-a-file#naming-conventions