threads / discuss / 26145

Unable to delete remote branch with a strange name

Subject: Unable to delete remote branch with a strange name

## tl;dr

4 messages between Dec 28, 2010 and Dec 28, 2010.

replies: 3people: 3as markdown or json

Jingzhao Ou· Dec 28, 2010, 07:06 UTC · lore

Hi, all,

When I checked out a git repository, it has the following remote branches:

$ git br -r
 origin/HEAD -> origin/master
 origin/master
 origin/dev/main
 origin/remotes/origin/dev/main

I tried to delete the last branch with a strange long name. Using "git push" to delete it would fail.

$ git push origin :remotes/origin/dev/main Pushing to jou@xx.xx.xx.xx:gsfw/omu_fw error: dst refspec remotes/origin/dev/main matches more than one. error: failed to push some refs to 'jou@xx.xx.xx.xx:gsfw/omu_fw'

However, I can create a new branch from it:

$ git co -b jou.temp origin/remotes/origin/dev/main Branch jou.temp3 set up to track remote branch remotes/origin/dev/main from origin. Switched to a new branch 'jou.temp3'

But again, I cannot push any changes in "jou.temp3" branch to that weird branch:

$ git push origin HEAD:remotes/origin/dev/main error: dst refspec remotes/origin/dev/main matches more than one. error: failed to push some refs to 'jou@xx.xx.xx.xx:gsfw/omu_fw'

I guess somehow, git is confused by "origin/dev/main" and "origin/remotes/origin/dev/main". Especially, it cannot identify the latter properly.

I wonder if any one can give me some suggestions on how to deal with this situation.

Thanks a lot! Jingzhao

Andreas Schwab· Dec 28, 2010, 08:40 UTC · re: Jingzhao Ou · lore

Re: Unable to delete remote branch with a strange name

Jingzhao Ou <jingzhao.ou@gmail.com> writes:

> I guess somehow, git is confused by "origin/dev/main" and 
> "origin/remotes/origin/dev/main". Especially, it cannot identify the latter
> properly.

Try fully qualifying the remote branch (beginning with refs/heads/).

Andreas.

-- 
Andreas Schwab, schwab@linux-m68k.org
GPG Key fingerprint = 58CA 54C7 6D53 942B 1756  01D3 44D5 214B 8276 4ED5
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Jingzhao Ou· Dec 28, 2010, 16:10 UTC · re: Andreas Schwab · lore

Re: Unable to delete remote branch with a strange name

Andreas Schwab <schwab <at> linux-m68k.org> writes:

Show 11 quoted lines

> 
> Jingzhao Ou <jingzhao.ou <at> gmail.com> writes:
> 
> > I guess somehow, git is confused by "origin/dev/main" and 
> > "origin/remotes/origin/dev/main". Especially, it cannot identify the latter
> > properly.
> 
> Try fully qualifying the remote branch (beginning with refs/heads/).
> 
> Andreas.
>

Hi, Andreas,

Yes, using the absolute path works like a champ!

git push origin :refs/heads/remotes/origin/dev/main

Thanks a lot for your help!

Jingzhao

Tomas Carnecky· Dec 28, 2010, 17:59 UTC · re: Jingzhao Ou · lore

Re: Unable to delete remote branch with a strange name

  On 12/28/10 5:10 PM, Jingzhao Ou wrote:

> Yes, using the absolute path works like a champ!
>
> git push origin :refs/heads/remotes/origin/dev/main

Do not use the term 'path' in this context. The fact that a ref looks like a path, and can be stored on the filesystem under the same directory structure is just an implementation detail. Note the *can*, because in the case of packed refs (see man git-pack-refs) the term 'path' is not even remotely accurate.

We use the term 'fully qualified ref' (see the similarity with 'fully qualified domain name') if we want to stress out that the full name of the ref is used (refs/heads/foo) instead of an abbreviation (foo).

tom