Git fatal: cannot lock ref

Question

I'm trying to create a branch on the current branch on my Ubuntu guest. Unfortunately I keep getting this error:

git checkout -b origin/feature/IF-53-change-validation-window/Tommaso
fatal: cannot lock ref 'refs/heads/origin/feature/IF-53-change-validation-window/Tommaso': 
'refs/heads/origin/branch' exists; 
cannot create 'refs/heads/origin/branch/Tommaso'

I tried git gc --prune=now as suggested here link, but keep getting the same error.

score 29 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 05 '21 at 18:43

29

You shouldn't be checking out branches that begin with "origin" or any other existing branch name.

Assuming that branch exists on origin, you should do the following:

git checkout feature/IF-53-change-validation-window/Tommaso

If you run git branch I expect you will see local branches with origin in the name.

The format git checkout X is shorthand for "look for a local branch X and check that out if it exists; otherwise look for a remote branch X and check that out locally (git checkout -b X origin/X)."

If you are creating a new local branch, you will often do the following:

git checkout -b new-branch

This will create a new branch pointing at the same commit as you had checked out previously.

To fix your current state, you can likely do this (see here):

git update-ref -d refs/heads/origin/branch

edited Nov 05 '21 at 18:43

Chuck Le Butt

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answered Jul 17 '17 at 10:08

cmbuckley

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Thank you! Actually I was creating the branch by giving the whole directory once I already was on the branch and not on origin – Tommaso Guerrini Jul 17 '17 at 11:27
@cmbuckley If [branch] exists on origin why can't the op just do `git fetch ; git checkout [branch]`? – jacknad Aug 27 '19 at 11:47
Yep - the first code block is a simple checkout. The rest of the answer explains the different modes of the checkout command, and how to recover and clean up the local refs. – cmbuckley Aug 27 '19 at 12:47
I'm confused. Was the problem with what OP did was that the name of the new branch started with "origin/"? – bob Mar 11 '20 at 18:38
The actual problem was probably conflicting branch names (e.g. differing only in case), and an earlier attempt to clean-up manually. There is nothing inherently wrong with naming a branch beginning with "origin/", but it certainly points to a misunderstanding of local and remote branches. – cmbuckley Mar 11 '20 at 21:14

score 19 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 27 '19 at 11:37

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Sometimes this can happen if the name of the branch you create doesn't match git naming conventions or those set by you projects git administrator. Changing the name to one that does, can can fix this issue.

answered Aug 27 '19 at 11:37

Deepak

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This answer helped fix my issue when I ran into a similar problem. – bob Mar 11 '20 at 18:38
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My issue was naming convention – Anh Nhat Tran Feb 18 '21 at 13:42
This Helped me. i renamed the branch and pushed and my problem fixed. – user2139898 Oct 24 '21 at 04:37

score 19 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 07 '20 at 07:08

19

This worked for me :

git --no-optional-locks fetch --prune origin

answered Sep 07 '20 at 07:08

MaTriXy

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prune sounds evil; would you mind elaborating on what exactly this command does? – ddruganov Oct 28 '21 at 07:31
https://git-scm.com/docs/git-prune removes all unreachable objects from the object database – MaTriXy Nov 08 '21 at 07:47

score 9 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 29 '21 at 12:11

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I was looking for answer here, but actually my problem was simpler, yet unresolvable.

fresh clone of repo
git checkout foo/bar
git checkout -b foo/bar/baz
got similiar error message.

As described here, you cannot use foo/bar both as a branch and directory. I had to change proposed naming convention.

answered Jul 29 '21 at 12:11

kiciek

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This was my issue. Thanks – Chuck Le Butt Nov 05 '21 at 18:42
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An actual command that helps someone getting this error is always a good idea in Stack Overflow answers. In this case, for instance, moving the "root" branch to a new name (`git branch -M foo/bar foo/bar/main`) will free up `foo/bar`, and allow it to be created as a dirctory, which leads to the success of `git checkout -b foo/bar/baz`. – ELLIOTTCABLE Apr 05 '22 at 21:59
If you have lots of git branches with the same naming pattern, it's possible to batch rename git branches https://stackoverflow.com/a/44570815/3281978 – tgrrr Apr 18 '22 at 05:08

score 7 · Answer 5 · edited Jan 29 '21 at 12:08

7

This happened with me too. The reason was, I was checking out a branch named feature, but in my local I already had a branch called feature/new-feature.

edited Jan 29 '21 at 12:08

Dharman

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answered Jan 29 '21 at 12:03

Ishan jain

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I want to create branches in my local with this protocol {username}/featureName but since my username is the same for all branches I want to create , I am unable to create a branch. What should I do? – etotientz Jun 17 '21 at 16:02

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 17 '21 at 21:38

3

After trying some of the above solutions with no luck, this worked for me:

git gc --prune=now

answered Dec 17 '21 at 21:38

General Mac

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Worked for me, but would love some more information on what's going on here. For instance: `git-gc - Cleanup unnecessary files and optimize the local repository` from [https://git-scm.com/docs/git-gc](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-gc) – Kent Robin May 31 '22 at 13:50

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 10 '21 at 13:34

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This happend to me, too. The reason was that I tried to create a branch with a too deep directory. The deepest directory to successfully create was: origin/titleA/titleB/nameOfTheNewBranch and I first tried to create it one step deeper in origin/titleA/titleB/titleC/nameOfTheNewBranch which seemed to be too deep 'cause it does not work.

answered Mar 10 '21 at 13:34

Vanessa

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This is likely not because of the *depth*, but because of the *existence of a parent*. Refs (like branches) are files on the filesystem; and if git tries to create a branch named `a/b/c`, it has to create directories named `a` and `a/b`. If you *then* try and create `a/b/c/d`, it's going to fail — `a/b/c` exists, as a file, and cannot be re-created as a dirctory to hold `d` as a file. – ELLIOTTCABLE Apr 05 '22 at 21:57

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Dec 07 '20 at 01:29

I just go a similar problem and the reason is, because of deleting the branch on the repo I couldn't access it to local so , what I do is delete the local branch and pull the new branch from the repo then create the feature branch and it did work

if you delete the branch in the repo it is still available in local

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Feb 22 '22 at 06:42

refs/heads The HEAD file is usually a symbolic reference to the current branch. The so-called symbolic reference means that it is a pointer to another reference.

every branch you make(such as s/a/b/c/d) will create a path in refs/heads. A file name d which save a SHA-1 values would be touch in the path: refs/heads/s/a/b/c/d

so the problem is, you made a branch named "origin/branch" already, so you can t make any branch named "origin/xxxxx" (or "origin/branch/xxxx") any more

you can simply delete the branch "origin/branch" , or just change your branch name — 李浩颖, Feb 22 '22 at 06:46

Git fatal: cannot lock ref

9 Answers9