# bug? fetching from empty unnamed remote repos 2 messages from 2017-06-12 to 2017-06-12. Participants: David Turner, Junio C Hamano. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/46160 ## David Turner, 2017-06-12 17:50 Subject: bug? fetching from empty unnamed remote repos Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/b3d0d39fe9d443fd8202b8b055d31f86%40exmbdft7.ad.twosigma.com ``` $ git init empty-1 $ git init empty-2 $ cd empty-1 $ git fetch ../empty-2 fatal: Couldn't find remote ref HEAD fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly But: $ git init empty-1 $ git init empty-2 $ cd empty-1 $ git remote add other ../empty-2 $ git fetch other # this works I haven't spent a lot of time looking into the code, because we can use the second option. But it does seem weird. ``` ## Junio C Hamano, 2017-06-12 18:08 Subject: Re: bug? fetching from empty unnamed remote repos Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/xmqqink1nknk.fsf%40gitster.mtv.corp.google.com In-Reply-To: ``` David Turner writes: > $ git init empty-1 > $ git init empty-2 > $ cd empty-1 > $ git fetch ../empty-2 > fatal: Couldn't find remote ref HEAD > fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly The current repository does not know anything about empty-2 repository. It does not have [remote "name"] section that points at ../empty-2 and it does not have a refspec to fetch. Hence "git fetch ../empty-2" tries to fetch HEAD from that repository by default. It does not exist, and it fails. > But: > $ git init empty-1 > $ git init empty-2 > $ cd empty-1 > $ git remote add other ../empty-2 You told to your current repository to have [remote "other"] section, that points at ../empty-2 and fetch with refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/other/* as the refspec. > $ git fetch other Hence "git fetch other" tries to fetch refs/heads/* into refs/remotes/other/*; not having any matching source is not a crime---it is a simple noop. > # this works So there is nothing surprising about all of the above as far as I can see. ```