Re: Git push tries to delete branch twice and fails

From: Kristoffer Haugsbakk <kristofferhaugsbakk@fastmail.com>
Date: Jun 6, 2025, 11:41 UTC
Message-ID: <ad141d46-3170-47d0-860d-46e7b92f878d@app.fastmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAJsoDaFKRz8om1d4YPtaqdyuBuPAiC-xHDuvmYW=VQWEzzXAtg@mail.gmail.com>

On Fri, Jun 6, 2025, at 13:20, Ondra Medek wrote:

Show 14 quoted lines

> 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)
```

Show 17 quoted lines

> 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