How to fix "corrupted" interactive rebase?

Question

I managed to create a little mess in my local git repository. I was trying to fix a broken commit by using the following instructions. Before running the "git commit --amend" (and after the git rebase --interactive) I decided that my changes were incorrect and so I executed "git reset HEAD --hard". Not a good idea, I tell you.

Now the interactive rebase seems to be "stuck". Git shows the current branch as (|REBASE-m). Every command (cd .., ls, git rebase...) inside my repository gives the following error:

cat: .git/rebase-merge/head-name: No such file or directory

Here's how git rebase --abort looks like:

$ git rebase --abort
cat: c:/_work/project/src/git/.git/rebase-merge/quiet: No such file or directory
cat: c:/_work/project/src/git/.git/rebase-merge/head-name: No such file or directory
cat: c:/_work/project/src/git/.git/rebase-merge/orig-head: No such file or directory
HEAD is now at 4c737fb Revert "Modified file names"
rm: cannot remove `c:/_work/project/src/git/.git/rebase-merge/done': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove directory `c:/_work/project/src/git/.git/rebase-merge': Directory
not empty
cat: .git/rebase-merge/head-name: No such file or directory

Here's the result of git rebase --continue:

$ git rebase --continue
cat: c:/_work/project/src/git/.git/rebase-merge/prev_head: No such file or directory
cat: c:/_work/project/src/git/.git/rebase-merge/end: No such file or directory
cat: c:/_work/project/src/git/.git/rebase-merge/msgnum: No such file or directory
cat: c:/_work/project/src/git/.git/rebase-merge/onto: No such file or directory
cat: c:/_work/project/src/git/.git/rebase-merge/quiet: No such file or directory
prev_head must be defined
cat: .git/rebase-merge/head-name: No such file or directory

Any ideas? I would like to reset the situation back to the state it was before I started my well-thought rebase operation.

Here's how git log --oneline shows the situation:

4c737fb Revert "Modified file names"
247ac02 Modified file names
33141e6 Message modifications
10a4a04 Modified db script

And this is fine.

I'm using msysgit v1.7.0.2.

score 558 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 19 '20 at 11:33

558

I got stuck in this. I created the head-name file, and then I ran into another error saying it couldn't find the onto file, so I created that file. Then I got another error saying could not read '.git/rebase-apply/onto': No such file or directory.

So I looked at the git documentation for rebasing and found another command:

git rebase --quit

This set me back on my branch with no changes, and I could start my rebase over again, good as new.

edited Jun 19 '20 at 11:33

Gama11

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answered Feb 28 '19 at 20:02

Laura Slocum

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`--quit` worked. `--abort` didn't because the rebase was cancelled half way through – Kalob Taulien Sep 27 '19 at 21:51
4

I had similar rebase-related error, just with different error message. Tried: `$ git rebase --abort` Output: `error: could not read '.git/rebase-apply/head-name': No such file or directory` Finally, this solution fixes my problem: `git rebase --quit` – aff Nov 14 '19 at 06:24
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Upvoted. `git rebase --quit` absolutely saved me. Same symptoms as described, but mine came after trying to do a `git pull --rebase`, which for some reason failed. Note I had autostash enabled (git version 2.27.0.windows.1) and had VS2019 running (pointed at that repo) at the same time - suspect some combination of these messed it up. – ErrCode Jun 10 '20 at 04:11
I was worried I'd have to re-do all the rebasing work after `git rebase --quit`, so I backed up the whole tree first, but after quiting and starting the rebase again, there were no conflicts to resolve! I might have been helped by my "rerere" configuration set up before the rebase started. https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Tools-Rerere – Mark Stosberg Apr 20 '22 at 16:35

Martin Owen · Accepted Answer · 2010-09-10T19:00:11.997

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It looks like Git tried to remove the .git/rebase-merge directory but wasn't able to remove it completely. Have you tried copying that folder away? Also copy away the .git/rebase-apply folder if that is present.

edited Sep 10 '10 at 19:00

answered Sep 10 '10 at 18:47

Martin Owen

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Thanks for pointing that out. I was able to fix my problem just by restarting the computer. I'm not sure what went wrong because somehow every access to the .git\rebase-merge folder caused an "Access denied" -error. – Mikael Koskinen Sep 13 '10 at 05:07
25

Reboot did not work for me but `git rebase --abort` (from http://stackoverflow.com/a/4757777/146044) _did_ work. – backus Mar 28 '16 at 02:24
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a word of warning... i had 4 hours worth of changes on my working directory when i noticed the corrupted rebase error. tried the `git rebase --abort` it wiped my unstaged changes... the error did disappear though – George Ananda Eman Sep 26 '16 at 12:22
Removing REBASE_HEAD, rebase-apply/ and rebased-patches in .git worked for me – MyrionSC2 Apr 02 '20 at 09:04
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`git rebase --quit` worked for me but I lost all autostashed changes like @GeorgeAnandaEman => it is possible to recover them though by using the answer in https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37845799/how-do-you-get-a-lost-autostash-commit-from-git-rebase-autostash explaining how to see all autostash commits – tiho Jul 15 '20 at 20:25
For IntelliJ users: Git > Rebase... > Abort Rebase. – Trayan Momkov Feb 17 '21 at 09:14

score 92 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 21 '11 at 10:37

92

I had a similar problem due to a zombie vim.exe process. Killing it in Task Manager, followed by a git rebase --abort fixed it.

answered Jan 21 '11 at 10:37

user584317

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this was my problem too. I used sysinternals `handle` command and saw that a process (sh.exe) had the file locked. Using `pskill ` fixed it for me. – Paul Oliver Aug 17 '15 at 23:07
i tried git rebase --abort but got an error error: could not read '.git/rebase-apply/head-name': No such file or directory; git rebase --quit worked – Andrei Diaconescu Nov 01 '21 at 10:22

score 38 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 12 '19 at 08:49

Thanks @Laura Slocum for your answer

I messed things up while rebasing and got a detached HEAD with an

 error: could not read orig-head

that prevented me from finishing the rebasing.

The detached HEAD seem to contain precisely my correct rebase desired state, so I ran

rebase --quit

and after that I checked out a new temp branch to bind it to the detached head.

By comparing it with the branch I wanted to rebase, I can see the new temp branch is exactly in the state I wanted to reach. Thanks

score 7 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 04 '14 at 06:46

7

Had same problem in Eclipse. Could not Rebase=>abort from Eclipse.

Executing git rebase --abort from Git Bash Worked for me.

answered Apr 04 '14 at 06:46

Praveen Hiremath

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score 7 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 27 '15 at 10:32

On Windows, if you are unwilling or unable to restart the machine see below.

Install Process Explorer: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

In Process Explorer, Find > File Handle or DLL ...

Type in the file name mentioned in the error (for my error it was 'git-rebase-todo' but in the question above, 'done').

Process Explorer will highlight the process holding a lock on the file (for me it was 'grep').

Kill the process and you will be able to abort the git action in the standard way.

score 5 · Answer 7 · edited Apr 06 '15 at 15:39

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Create a file with this name:

touch .git/rebase-merge/head-name

and than use git rebase

edited Apr 06 '15 at 15:39

Ethaan

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answered Apr 06 '15 at 15:20

Tehila Dabush

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score 5 · Answer 8 · answered Feb 20 '19 at 12:25

5

In my case eighter git rebase --abort and git rebase --continue was throwing:

error: could not read '.git/rebase-apply/head-name': No such file or directory

I managed to fix this issue by manually removing: .git\rebase-apply directory.

answered Feb 20 '19 at 12:25

Dariusz

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score 3 · Answer 9 · answered Dec 06 '18 at 19:07

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I'm using git version 2.19.2.windows.1.

the only thing that worked for me was to remove the .git/rebase-apply/ directory and do a git reset --hard.

answered Dec 06 '18 at 19:07

Spongman

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score 2 · Answer 10 · answered Mar 28 '19 at 10:13

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With SublimeText 3 on Windows, the problem is fixed by just closing the Sublime windows used for interactive commit edition.

answered Mar 28 '19 at 10:13

LeBorgne

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meridius · Answer 11 · 2016-03-09T08:58:10.377

In my case it was because I had opened SmartGit's Log in the respective Git project and Total Commander in the respective project directory. When I closed both I was able to rebase without any problem.

The more I think about it, the more I suspect Total Commander, i.e. Windows having a lock on opened directory the git rebase was trying to something with.

Friendly advice: When you try to fix something, always do one change at a time. ;)

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Jan 03 '19 at 05:34

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I have tried all the above steps mentioned but nothing worked for me. Finally, restarting the computer worked for this issue :D

answered Jan 03 '19 at 05:34

Mohammed Asif

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score 1 · Answer 13 · answered May 10 '20 at 01:34

If you get below state and rebase does not work anymore,

$ git status
rebase in progress; onto (null)
You are currently rebasing.
  (all conflicts fixed: run "git rebase --continue")

Then first run,

$ git rebase -quit

And then restore previous state from reflog,

$ git reflog
97f7c6f (HEAD, origin/master, origin/HEAD) HEAD@{0}: pull --rebase: checkout 97f7c6f292d995b2925c2ea036bb4823a856e1aa
4035795 (master) HEAD@{1}: commit (amend): Adding 2nd commit
d16be84 HEAD@{2}: commit (amend): Adding 2nd commit
8577ca8 HEAD@{3}: commit: Adding 2nd commit
3d2088d HEAD@{4}: reset: moving to head~
52eec4a HEAD@{5}: commit: Adding initial commit

Using,

$ git checkout HEAD@{1} #or
$ git checkout master #or
$ git checkout 4035795 #or

score 0 · Answer 14 · edited Nov 21 '13 at 23:10

0

Once you have satisfactorily completed rebasing X number of commits , the last command must be git rebase --continue . That completes the process and exits out of the rebase mode .

edited Nov 21 '13 at 23:10

Karel Bílek

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answered Oct 24 '13 at 16:25

diptia

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score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Jul 09 '14 at 00:38

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I had the same problem. I used process explorer as suggested in other post (i am not able to find that post) and figured out which process has a lock on the file and kill it. then execute the --continue or --abort as per needs

answered Jul 09 '14 at 00:38

user3739537

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score 0 · Answer 16 · answered May 03 '16 at 13:34

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In my case after testing all this options and still having issues i tried sudo git rebase --abort and it did the whole thing

answered May 03 '16 at 13:34

Dani.Rangelov

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Be careful if you're doing this in the middle of an actual rebase. Just lost my changes :'( – Freeman L Sep 11 '17 at 10:05
It was considered "corrupted", then you start over with the rebase – Dani.Rangelov Sep 12 '17 at 07:19

score 0 · Answer 17 · answered May 07 '19 at 12:59

0

tried everything else but a reboot, what worked for me is rm -fr .git/REBASE_HEAD

answered May 07 '19 at 12:59

Jeremy Vaught

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score -3 · Answer 18 · answered Oct 14 '14 at 12:57

-3

I am using git in eclipse and I was having the same problem.

Eventually I found that the "Rebase ..." menu entry was temporarily transformed into a sub-menu.

Team-> Rebase -> Abort

It worked for me.

answered Oct 14 '14 at 12:57

Shiva Agrawal

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How to fix "corrupted" interactive rebase?

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