threads / discuss / 42029

Cannot checkout a branch / worktree shows multiple branches for the same directory

Subject: Cannot checkout a branch / worktree shows multiple branches for the same directory

## tl;dr

3 messages between Apr 14, 2016 and Apr 14, 2016.

replies: 2people: 3as markdown or json

Krzysztof Voss· Apr 14, 2016, 19:51 UTC · lore

Hi,

I stumbled upon an interesting problem when checking out a branch. I had to switch to a testing branch to merge in some changes from yet another branch, but when I tried to check out the testing branch I got a message saying that I'm already on the target branch.

I used worktree a few times, but the checkouts were always in their own directories. It crossed my mind that this behaviour may be related, so I took a look at the worktree list and noticed that according to that list there are three branches at the same time in one directory.

It may be a conicidence and I have no confidence in saying that these issues are related. Can someone shed some light on this issue for me?

    $ git --version
    git version 2.7.0.235.g07c314d

    $ git status -uno -sb
    ## ticket-22444
    M src/core/parsers/ParserBase.py
    M src/core/parsers/test/ParserBase_test.py

    $ git stash
    Saved working directory and index state WIP on ticket-22444:
7c5edaa #22444 refactoring
    HEAD is now at 7c5edaa #22444 refactoring

    $ git co testing
    fatal: 'testing' is already checked out at '/home/k/workspace/moyo'

    $ pwd
    /home/k/workspace/moyo

    $ git branch | grep '*'
    * ticket-22444

    $ git worktree list
    /home/k/workspace/moyo  7c5edaa [ticket-22444]
    /var/home/k/moyo-lsf  349613d (detached HEAD)
    /home/k/workspace/moyo  265b7f9 (detached HEAD)
    /home/k/workspace/moyo  c852282 [testing]

    $ uname -a
    Linux k 3.13.0-83-generic #127-Ubuntu SMP Fri Mar 11 00:25:37 UTC
2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

    $ cat /etc/lsb-release
    DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
    DISTRIB_RELEASE=14.04
    DISTRIB_CODENAME=trusty
    DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS"

Thanks, Krzysztof

Mike Rappazzo· Apr 14, 2016, 23:11 UTC · re: Krzysztof Voss · lore

Re: Cannot checkout a branch / worktree shows multiple branches for the same directory

On Thu, Apr 14, 2016 at 3:51 PM, Krzysztof Voss <k.voss@usask.ca> wrote:

Show 45 quoted lines

> Hi,
>
> I stumbled upon an interesting problem when checking out a branch.
> I had to switch to a testing branch to merge in some changes from yet
> another branch, but when I tried to check out the testing branch I got
> a message saying that I'm already on the target branch.
>
> I used worktree a few times, but the checkouts were always in their
> own directories.
> It crossed my mind that this behaviour may be related, so I took a
> look at the worktree list and noticed that according to that list
> there are three branches at the same time in one directory.
>
> It may be a conicidence and I have no confidence in saying that these
> issues are related.
> Can someone shed some light on this issue for me?
>
>
>     $ git --version
>     git version 2.7.0.235.g07c314d
>
>     $ git status -uno -sb
>     ## ticket-22444
>     M src/core/parsers/ParserBase.py
>     M src/core/parsers/test/ParserBase_test.py
>
>     $ git stash
>     Saved working directory and index state WIP on ticket-22444:
> 7c5edaa #22444 refactoring
>     HEAD is now at 7c5edaa #22444 refactoring
>
>     $ git co testing
>     fatal: 'testing' is already checked out at '/home/k/workspace/moyo'
>
>     $ pwd
>     /home/k/workspace/moyo
>
>     $ git branch | grep '*'
>     * ticket-22444
>
>     $ git worktree list
>     /home/k/workspace/moyo  7c5edaa [ticket-22444]
>     /var/home/k/moyo-lsf  349613d (detached HEAD)
>     /home/k/workspace/moyo  265b7f9 (detached HEAD)
>     /home/k/workspace/moyo  c852282 [testing]

This looks a lot like the `update_linked_gitdir()` bug that (I thought) was fixed[1]. Is it possible that you had this problem since before the bug was fixed and are just noticing it now?

If you look in '/home/k/workspace/moyo/.git/worktrees/` I suspect that there are 3 dirs in there, two of which have a file 'gitdir' which have the contents '.git'. These _should_ instead point to the '.git' file in your other work trees. It would be nice to know the last time that those bad worktrees were updated.

If you know where the other worktrees are located, then you should be able to manually update this file in each of the worktree dirs. Alternatively, you can manually remove the bad linked worktrees (`rm -r .git/worktrees/bad_wt`).

[1] http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/284284

Show 18 quoted lines

>
>     $ uname -a
>     Linux k 3.13.0-83-generic #127-Ubuntu SMP Fri Mar 11 00:25:37 UTC
> 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
>
>     $ cat /etc/lsb-release
>     DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
>     DISTRIB_RELEASE=14.04
>     DISTRIB_CODENAME=trusty
>     DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS"
>
>
> Thanks,
> Krzysztof
> --
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> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

Eric Sunshine· Apr 14, 2016, 23:12 UTC · re: Krzysztof Voss · lore

Re: Cannot checkout a branch / worktree shows multiple branches for the same directory

On Thu, Apr 14, 2016 at 3:51 PM, Krzysztof Voss <k.voss@usask.ca> wrote:

Show 23 quoted lines

> I stumbled upon an interesting problem when checking out a branch.
> I had to switch to a testing branch to merge in some changes from yet
> another branch, but when I tried to check out the testing branch I got
> a message saying that I'm already on the target branch.
>
> I used worktree a few times, but the checkouts were always in their
> own directories.
> It crossed my mind that this behaviour may be related, so I took a
> look at the worktree list and noticed that according to that list
> there are three branches at the same time in one directory.
>
> It may be a conicidence and I have no confidence in saying that these
> issues are related.
> Can someone shed some light on this issue for me?
>
>     $ git --version
>     git version 2.7.0.235.g07c314d
>
>     $ git worktree list
>     /home/k/workspace/moyo  7c5edaa [ticket-22444]
>     /var/home/k/moyo-lsf  349613d (detached HEAD)
>     /home/k/workspace/moyo  265b7f9 (detached HEAD)
>     /home/k/workspace/moyo  c852282 [testing]

Did you manually move any of your worktrees? If so, perhaps this a manifestation of the problem where .git/worktrees/<id>/gitdir got incorrectly "refreshed" following the move. This issue was "addressed" by 618244e (worktree: stop supporting moving worktrees manually, 2016-01-22)[1], which is in git 2.7.2.

Unfortunately, if your gitdir files are already corrupt, upgrading to git 2.7.2 won't recover them; you'll have to fix them manually as described by the documentation update included with 618244e[1].

[1]: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/284284/focus=284551