On Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 12:14:24PM +1200, Ben Bradshaw wrote: > I was asked to post this issue to the list, I've just had git tell me it > can't detach HEAD which left me scratching mine as to the cause and fix. > Turns out if I have local untracked files that the remote branch also > has then this error will trigger. I have included my shell backlog > (client data removed). In this example the site_map folder was present > on master and I had a local, untracked copy. > > git can obviosly detect this issue and stop my local copy getting in a > bad state, but an error message such as "sites/all/modules/site_map/ is > present in HEAD but is untracked locally, unable to apply changes" (or > something to point the finger) would be much appreciated. I couldn't reproduce it here; I get such a message. # set up forked repo, "another" exists only on master $ mkdir repo && cd repo $ git init $ echo content >file && git add file && git commit -m base $ echo content >another && git add another && git commit -m another $ git checkout -b other HEAD^ $ echo changes >file && git commit -a -m changes # add untracked "another" here $ echo untracked >another # try rebase $ git rebase master First, rewinding head to replay your work on top of it... error: Untracked working tree file 'another' would be overwritten by merge. could not detach HEAD # try git pull --rebase, in case it hides the message $ git config branch.other.remote . $ git config branch.other.merge refs/heads/master $ git pull --rebase From . * branch master -> FETCH_HEAD First, rewinding head to replay your work on top of it... error: Untracked working tree file 'another' would be overwritten by merge. could not detach HEAD I'll admit the "could not detach HEAD" message would probably be better as: rebase: unable to move HEAD to 'master', aborting rebase or something similar. What version of git are you using? What does my test case above produce for you? -Peff -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html