Git Push error: refusing to update checked out branch

git git-push
Funky picture Funky · Jun 20, 2012 · Viewed 184.2k times · Source

I have solved some merge conflicts, committed then tried to Push my changes and received the following error:

c:\Program Files (x86)\Git\bin\git.exe push --recurse-submodules=check "origin" master:master
Done
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 inconsistent
remote: error: with what you pushed, and will require 'git reset --hard' to match
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 C:/Development/GIT_Repo/Project
 ! [remote rejected] master -> master (branch is currently checked out)
error: failed to push some refs to 'C:/Development/GIT_Repo/Project'

Does anyone know what could be causing this error?

Answer

Shahbaz picture Shahbaz · Jun 20, 2012

Reason:You are pushing to a Non-Bare Repository

There are two types of repositories: bare and non-bare

Bare repositories do not have a working copy and you can push to them. Those are the types of repositories you get in Github! If you want to create a bare repository, you can use

git init --bare

So, in short, you can't push to a non-bare repository (Edit: Well, you can't push to the currently checked out branch of a repository. With a bare repository, you can push to any branch since none are checked out. Although possible, pushing to non-bare repositories is not common). What you can do, is to fetch and merge from the other repository. This is how the pull request that you can see in Github works. You ask them to pull from you, and you don't force-push into them.

Update: Thanks to VonC for pointing this out, in the latest git versions (currently 2.3.0), pushing to the checked out branch of a non-bare repository is possible. Nevertheless, you still cannot push to a dirty working tree, which is not a safe operation anyway.

Related questions

How do I delete a Git branch locally and remotely?

I want to delete a branch both locally and remotely. Failed Attempts to Delete a Remote Branch $ git branch -d remotes/origin/bugfix error: branch 'remotes/origin/bugfix' not found. $ git branch -d origin/bugfix error: branch 'origin/bugfix' not …

Read More
How do I push a new local branch to a remote Git repository and track it too?

I want to be able to do the following: Create a local branch based on some other (remote or local) branch (via git branch or git checkout -b) Push the local branch to the remote repository (publish), but make it …

Read More
How do I properly force a Git push?

I've set up a remote non-bare "main" repo and cloned it to my computer. I made some local changes, updated my local repository, and pushed the changes back to my remote repo. Things were fine up to that point. Now, …

Read More