How do I reconcile: "warning: ignoring ref with broken name refs/remotes/origin/HEAD 2"?-CodePudding

I am revisiting a collaborative portfolio project in Java/Spring and I have run into an issue on my local machine that I may have created a month ago. At some point I must have created HEAD 2 of refs/remotes/origin/HEAD 2. Now when I am trying to fetch origin I am receiving this error from github desktop (Edits in "<<>>"):

From github.com:<<myGithub>>/<<repoName>>
 - [deleted]         (none)     -> origin/HEAD 2
fatal: bad object refs/remotes/origin/HEAD 2
error: github.com:<<myGithub>>/<<repoName>>.git did not send all necessary objects

Upon attempting to troubleshoot, I attempted a couple git actions, perhaps naively that have dug me deeper. I used git remote set-head origin main and here were the results:

% git remote set-head origin main
% git branch --all
warning: ignoring ref with broken name refs/remotes/origin/HEAD 2
* cdev
  david
  erik
  kern
  main
  remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/main
  remotes/origin/david
  remotes/origin/erik
  remotes/origin/kern
  remotes/origin/main

Note: The 5 last lines preceded with 'remotes/origin' are displayed in red, with the exception of -> origin/main

% git remote show origin
* remote origin
  Fetch URL: [email protected]:<<myGithub>>/<<repoName>>.git
  Push  URL: [email protected]:<<myGithub>>/<<repoName>>.git
  HEAD branch: cdev
  Remote branches:
    cdev                       new (next fetch will store in remotes/origin)
    david                      tracked
    erik                       tracked
    kern                       tracked
    main                       tracked
    refs/remotes/origin/HEAD 2 stale (use 'git remote prune' to remove)
  Local branches configured for 'git pull':
    cdev  merges with remote cdev
    david merges with remote david
    erik  merges with remote erik
    kern  merges with remote kern
    main  merges with remote main
    show  merges with remote main
  Local refs configured for 'git push':
    cdev  pushes to cdev  (up to date)
    david pushes to david (up to date)
    erik  pushes to erik  (up to date)
    kern  pushes to kern  (up to date)
    main  pushes to main  (up to date)

I'd like clarity in what to take from this: cdev new (next fetch will store in remotes/origin)
My attempts to heed refs/remotes/origin/HEAD 2 stale (use 'git remote prune' to remove) have been fruitless as well.

% git remote prune origin --dry-run        
Pruning origin
URL: [email protected]:<<myGithub>>/<<repoName>>.git
 * [would prune] origin/HEAD 2
% git remote prune origin  
Pruning origin
URL: [email protected]:<<myGithub>>/<<repoName>>.git
 * [pruned] origin/HEAD 2
% git remote prune origin --dry-run
Pruning origin
URL: [email protected]:<<myGithub>>/<<repoName>>.git
 * [would prune] origin/HEAD 2

Note: Pruning doesn't appear to be effective; going in a circle.

I suspect that the issue could have arisen from the improper or sloppy reuse of my named branch after merging it to the cdev branch. I feel I'm going the wrong direction with this and will be diving into git documentation before I try anything else bold.

Could anyone steer me the right direction to clean up this mess? I guess I'm looking for clarity to which action would cause this, and thusly what I should NOT do in the future. Overall I'm asking: what steps can be taken to clean up my remotes and remove any reference to HEAD 2? Furthermore, I am most interested in correcting this with git commands rather than clever work-arounds.

CodePudding user response：

I suspect that the issue could have arisen from the improper or sloppy reuse of my named branch after merging it to the cdev branch. I feel I'm going the wrong direction with this and will be diving into git documentation before I try anything else bold.

Actually, it probably comes from storing your repository in a cloud-synced folder, such as iCloud or Dropbox. Don't do that. These cloud-synching programs will damage Git repositories.

CodePudding user response：

I was able to correct the error with the following CLI command:

rm .git/refs/remotes/origin/HEAD\ 2