How to delete the git reference `refs/original/refs/heads/master`?

Question

What's this in the yellow round box?

I've tried git branch -D, git tag -d but none succeeded. So how to delete it?

Solution 1

Alexey Ten has the better answer for this because it handles branches, tags, and packed refs. Future visitors should try that solution before this one.

---

If it's a tag, the following command ought to work:

git tag -d refs/original/refs/heads/master

But, since you've said it doesn't, you can just delete the file out of the .git directory. From the repository root, a command like this will get it:

rm .git/refs/tags/refs/original/refs/heads/master

The path may be slightly different if the git-tag command failed, so you may want to cd .git/refs and find the offending head by trial-and-error. Deleting the file will remove the reference from your local repository.

Solution 2

This command should work

git update-ref -d refs/original/refs/heads/master

Solution 3

This is a ref. Normally created by git filter-branch - it is a pointer to where your branch was before you ran git filter-branch.

And to delete any ref, you can always push nothing to it in the local repository:

git push . :refs/original/refs/heads/master

The other answers also covered pretty well other ways of deleting.

Comments

[Jonathon Reinhart]

Please consider changing the accepted answer to Alexey Ten's answer which is highly-upvoted, and correct (git update-ref -d).

[Xiè Jìléi]

It's not a tag, however, I've found it as .git/refs/original/refs/heads/master.

[its4zahoor]

+1: You should always use git update-ref -d instead of just rming the ref - bad things can happen otherwise.

[40XUserNotFound]

"Pushing nothing" to delete the reference locally is very clever.

[Daniel Alder]

This should be the accepted answer

[wahnfrieden]

@CallumRogers why?

[Alexey Ten]

@wahnfrieden because git could use packed refs and there will be no corresponding file in refs directory

[C4F]

Made my day. I had a reference to a remote tag that the remote no longer existed. This is the only command that worked.

[wchargin]

Use git update-ref rather than manually mutating Git's internals. See Alexey's answer.

[0xC0000022L]

Oh, it's that one out of the grab bag of nearly 200 Git subcommands with many more (inconsistent) command line switches 😁 ...

[Admin]

I was bashing my head against "error: dst refspec main matches more than one" because I had a ref/head/main and a ref/heads/main due to a typo. Your answer saved my head.