Git fatal: Reference has invalid format: 'refs/heads/master

Question

I am using Dropbox to sync a git repository, but now when I try and push I am getting an error:

fatal: Reference has inval         


        

Answer 1

make a backup of your repo if you aren't sure about this one, because these commands are irreversible.

first, go to your repo directory.

cd myrepo

then recursively search for the conflicted files and delete them

find . -type f -name "* conflicted copy*" -exec rm -f {} \;

lastly, remove any "conflicted" references from git's packed-refs file

awk '!/conflicted/' .git/packed-refs > temp && mv temp .git/packed-refs

Answer 2

The conflicted file could be in multiple places, I would look into:

.git/logs/refs/remotes/origin/
.git/logs/refs/heads/
.git/refs/remotes/origin/
.git/refs/heads/

Or you might look everywhere in the .git subdirectory: find . -name '*conflicted*'

Or, otherwise, list the active branches with git branch -a and delete (git branch -d) anything suspicious.