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.

Answer 1

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