Cannot delete remote branch in git

Question

I'd like to delete a remote branch from my central git repository. The usual advice is to do 'git push origin :branchname' or 'git push origin :heads/branchname'. But when I try that, I get this error message:

*** Deleting a branch is not allowed in this repository
error: hooks/update exited with error code 1
error: hook declined to update refs/heads/branchname
To /opt/repo/myrepo.git
! [remote rejected] branchname (hook declined)
error: failed to push some refs to '/opt/repo/myrepo.git'

What gives? I'm using git version 1.5.4.3, if that helps.

Answer 1

Someone has enabled a hook in the remote repo that is prohibiting the delete -- this is usually done so that someone can't push a rebased branch into the repo. (I maintain a fairly large collection of git repositories and they are all configured this way, although not with a hook.)

Look in the hooks/ directory in the remote repository. There will be a script named "update"; this is what's refusing to let you delete the branch.