threads / discuss / 48010

Case sensitivity when deleting a checked out branch

Subject: Case sensitivity when deleting a checked out branch

## tl;dr

One message between Mar 8, 2018 and Mar 8, 2018.

replies: 0people: 1as markdown or json

guillaume weybrecht· Mar 8, 2018, 19:57 UTC · lore
Hello,

I came across an odd behavior in Git related to case sensitivity when deleting a checked out branch. I was not able to find much information about it.

$ git checkout -b foo $ git branch -d foo       # error: Cannot delete branch 'foo' checked out => this is expected, nothing happens since you are on branch 'foo' $ git branch -d Foo       # Deleted branch Foo => this is not expected, Git removed 'foo' from .git/refs/heads

Git removed the 'foo' file from .git/refs/heads, but did not update the .git/HEAD file which still contains "ref: refs/heads/foo".

In fact, everything looks like a "git checkout --orphan foo": $ git status              # On branch foo. No commits yet (the working tree is staged) $ git log                 # fatal: your current branch 'foo' does not have any commits yet $ git rev-parse HEAD --   # fatal: bad revision 'HEAD' $ git fsck                # notice: HEAD points to an unborn branch (foo)

You can run "git checkout <other_branch>" to get back on your feet as you would after "git checkout --orphan foo".

The thing is, you get there unexpectedly without any warning, just with a case sensitivity mistake in "git branch -d". Even it is seems unlikely to happen, someone ran into this at my job.

Tested on Windows 2.15.1.windows.2 and 2.16.2.windows.1, and on Mac OS (I think it was a 2.14 version).

Best regards, Guillaume

--- L'absence de virus dans ce courrier électronique a été vérifiée par le logiciel antivirus Avast. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

← back to recent threads