Git push receiving "error: refusing to update checked out branch"

Question

Here's what I've done so far:

I successfully cloned my remote repo to a new directory on my local machine.

Then I edited a file in working copy, committed it, and tried to push it to the remote repo. Here's the error I got:

$ git push origin master
root@gohyperspace.com's password:
Counting objects: 9, done.
Delta compression using up to 4 threads.
Compressing objects: 100% (5/5), done.
Writing objects: 100% (5/5), 456 bytes | 0 bytes/s, done.
Total 5 (delta 4), reused 0 (delta 0)
remote: error: refusing to update checked out branch: refs/heads/master
remote: error: By default, updating the current branch in a non-bare repository
remote: error: is denied, because it will make the index and work tree inconsist
ent
remote: error: with what you pushed, and will require 'git reset --hard' to matc
h
remote: error: the work tree to HEAD.
remote: error:
remote: error: You can set 'receive.denyCurrentBranch' configuration variable to

remote: error: 'ignore' or 'warn' in the remote repository to allow pushing into

remote: error: its current branch; however, this is not recommended unless you
remote: error: arranged to update its work tree to match what you pushed in some

remote: error: other way.
remote: error:
remote: error: To squelch this message and still keep the default behaviour, set

remote: error: 'receive.denyCurrentBranch' configuration variable to 'refuse'.
To root@gohyperspace.com:/var/www/html
 ! [remote rejected] master -> master (branch is currently checked out)
error: failed to push some refs to 'root@gohyperspace.com:/var/www/html'

Do you have any ideas on how I can resolve this? Thanks.

Here's my local Git cofiguration:

$ git config -l
core.symlinks=false
core.autocrlf=true
color.diff=auto
color.status=auto
color.branch=auto
color.interactive=true
pack.packsizelimit=2g
help.format=html
http.sslcainfo=/bin/curl-ca-bundle.crt
sendemail.smtpserver=/bin/msmtp.exe
diff.astextplain.textconv=astextplain
rebase.autosquash=true
merge.tool=tortoisemerge
gui.recentrepo=C:/Users/Chris/Dev/Projects/html
user.email=JazzcatCB@gmail.com
user.name=CBarnhill
core.repositoryformatversion=0
core.filemode=false
core.bare=false
core.logallrefupdates=true
core.symlinks=false
core.ignorecase=true
core.hidedotfiles=dotGitOnly
remote.origin.url=root@gohyperspace.com:var/www/html
remote.origin.fetch=+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
branch.master.remote=origin
branch.master.merge=refs/heads/master
user.name=Chris Barnhill
user.email=JazzcatCB@gmail.com
gui.wmstate=normal
gui.geometry=887x427+26+26 171 192

Answer 1

The remote master-branch is obviously in a non-bare state, which means, that anyone pushing into this branch would overwrite the existing status of the checked out working copy (the reference to HEAD). This is not a good thing.

To solve this, you either use a bare repository as a "communal" repo (do this with 'git init --bare'), or work with branches:

git checkout -b myBranch

Do your work on this branch and commit. Then push your branch with 'git push origin myBranch' without having to destroy anything. After that, your branch in the remote repo can be merged or rebased into master.

Answer 2

Isn't the long description in the message clear enough?

You can do three things:

• make the original repo bare, and push whatever you like
• set the receive.denyCurrentBranch in config as suggested to allow pushing to checked-out branches, and take care of the discrepancies
• check out a different branch in the target repo

possibly even force push would work, I don't suggest that.