"Cannot update paths and switch to branch at the same time"

Question

I sometimes use the checkout -b option to create a new branch, check it out at the same time and set up tracking in one command.

In a new environment, I get this error:

$ git checkout -b test --track origin/master fatal: Cannot update paths and switch to branch 'test' at the same time. Did you intend to checkout 'origin/master' which can not be resolved as commit? 

Why does Git not like it? This used to work with the same repo.

Answer 1

'origin/master' which can not be resolved as commit

Strange: you need to check your remotes:

git remote -v 

And make sure origin is fetched:

git fetch origin 

Then:

git branch -avv 

(to see if you do have fetched an origin/master branch)

Finally, use git switch instead of the confusing git checkout, with Git 2.23+ (August 2019).

git switch -c test --track origin/master