On Mon, Jul 05 2021, Ulrich Windl wrote: >>>> Junio C Hamano <gitster@xxxxxxxxx> schrieb am 02.07.2021 um 20:15 in > Nachricht > <xmqqczs0popg.fsf@gitster.g>: >> "Ulrich Windl" <Ulrich.Windl@xxxxxx‑regensburg.de> writes: >> >>> I was wondering whether git fsck should be able to cleanup >>> orphaned branches ("HEAD points to an unborn branch") as described >>> in https://stackoverflow.com/q/68226081/6607497 It seems I can fix >>> it be editing files in the repository, but I feed that's not the >>> way it should be. >> >> HEAD pointing at an unborn branch is not even a corruption, isn't >> it? >> >> $ rm ‑rf trash && git init trash >> >> would point HEAD at an unborn one, ready to be used. > > > OK, so maybe I was just confused by "fsck". At it seems after committing, fsck > no longer complains. > As "EXTRACTED DIAGNOSTICS" In man git-fsck (Git 2.26.2) does not mention > "unborn" (and as it's not a common IT phrase), one could probably explain what > it means. FWIW you're completely right about the unstated point that fsck's error messages/reporting is pretty bad. I've been trying to fix some of it up recently (including one hopefully soon-to-land series). It has a bunch of output that's overly verbose, and other complaints where it's not clear if they're actionable or not (e.g. what you mentioned), or whether it's even a problem. If I create an ext4 filesystem and run fsck on it it's not going to complain that there's no files yet, so it's a bit silly that fsck complains about a freshly git-init'd repo.