Remote branch can not be resolved as commit?

I am trying to setup a repository for use inside the LAN, but I have been unable to checkout any branch so far. I am very new to git.

The repository is being served from gitblit over https. I have GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY=true. The repository was created from git svn.

git ls-remote

shows the remote branches, e.g.:

... refs/remotes/2.0.3 ... refs/remotes/trunk

git branch -r

shows none of the remote branches.

git checkout -b new-2.0.3 origin/2.0.3

produces:

fatal: git checkout: updating paths is incompatible with switching branches. Did you intend to checkout 'origin/2.0.3' which can not be resolved as commit?

What does that mean?

I get the same result after each of these:

git fetch

git remote update git fetch

git add remote stage-repo https://example.com:8443/git/blah-tools.git git fetch stage-repo git checkout -b new-2.0.3 stage-repo/2.0.3

Can you explain what the error message means, and what I am doing wrong?

Kendall

Am 22.05.2013 16:29, schrieb Kendall Shaw:

(Never heard of gitblit. Consider my post as first level support ;-)

Remember that git is a distributed CVS, unlike svn. We are talking about two repositories, the local one you executed the commands from and the one on the server.

I would have expected a listing of ... refs/heads/2.0.3 ... refs/heads/trunk

and also a mention of the remote repository (did you remove that before posting?).

In refs/remotes you usually find references/pointers to remote branches whereas local branches are in refs/heads. So this looks like an empty repository that was created and configured with a remote repository.

Either your remote repository failed to get any contents or "git ls-remote" lists your local (empty) repository, which is possible if you somehow managed to configure your local repository as remote of itself.

I would suggest the following:

1) "git ls-remote .". If it shows the same listing as git "ls-remote", 
you probably have configured your local repository as your remote

2) "git config --list". Is "remote.origin.url" a link to the repository 
on the server or is it "."?

3) Can you log into the server? If yes, change to the repository there 
and try "git log" (are there any commits listed at all?), "git branch -a 
-v". If no commits and no local branches, blame git svn.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/945654/git-checkout-on-a-remote-branch-does-not-work