I don't know why my attempt of renaming local branch failed. I basically cloned the project, then I also have a submodule within the project, and I downloaded the submodule code as well. However, when I use git branch within the submodule, I have:
* (no branch) master The code looks like I'm on another branch but the output shows that it doesn't have a name. Then I searched online to find how to rename local branch and I got this:
git branch -m <newname> After I run this command git gave me this error:
error: refname refs/heads/HEAD not found fatal: Branch rename failed Anybody know why this happens? Thanks.
8 Answers
I get into this issue too. The reason is that I didn't have any commit on this git repository.
When I run the command git branch -M main. I get the following error message.
error: refname refs/heads/master not found fatal: Branch rename failed After I add my first commit by the following command, all things work.
git add . git commit -m 'Init' You are currently in detached head state. You must checkout a new branch to associate it with the current commit:
git checkout -b new_branch I thought it was a conflict of "git init" creating master branch and github's (new) "main".
After:
git add . git commit -m "first commit" I was able to git branch -M main
You can change the name from master to main in few steps, locally before you even make a commit.
- Navigate to the directory where your project sits.
- In it, show hidden file since by default,
.gitwould be hidden. - Inside
.git, there is a file,HEAD, open it in a text editor. You'd see,ref: refs/heads/master. - Simple enough, change,
mastertomain.
We just renamed the master branch as main. Verify this merely by entering, git branch from the terminal.
First set your email and username config using:
git config --global user.email “” git config --global user.name “Your Name” Then add your files:
git add . Then make your first commit :
git commit -m "Initial commit" And now run the command :
git branch -M main It worked for me this way.
My guess is that you're not on a branch named "(no branch)", but rather not on a branch.
If you first checkout master:
git checkout master and then create a new branch:
git checkout -b new_branch that would make it look like you'd expect.
I also got that error but I fixed it with: git commit -m"your commit" before : git branch -M main and it worked correctly
Try this:
git config --global user.email “your-email”
git config --global user.name “your-username”
git commit -m "TypeScript React using Tailwind"
git branch -M main
git push -u origin main
it must work! :)
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