From: Jeff King <peff@xxxxxxxx> Since 67affd5173 (git-branch -D: make it work even when on a yet-to-be-born branch, 2006-11-24), 'git branch -d' refuses to work when orphaned, since there is no HEAD to resolve. But since 67affd5173, there have been other checks, like 99c419c915 (branch -d: base the "already-merged" safety on the branch it merges with, 2009-12-29), which makes it OK to delete a branch if it is merged to HEAD or its upstream. 99c419c915 makes the check in 67affd5173 wrong, since it's OK to delete a branch if it is merged to its upstream. Since the code in delete_branches() tolerates a NULL head_rev perfectly fine, make it non-fatal to fail to resolve a commit object at HEAD. Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@xxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@xxxxxxxxxxxx> --- OK, here's that patch. Since Peff wrote the main portion of it, he gets authorship credit. My version comes with a test, which we should consider picking up. Even though it doesn't resolve Martin's original scenario (i.e., he'd still have to use -D or -f to actually delete 'main' there), I still think the bugfix is worth pursuing in its own right. builtin/branch.c | 5 +---- t/t3200-branch.sh | 7 +++++++ 2 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-) diff --git a/builtin/branch.c b/builtin/branch.c index 15be0c03ef..f6ff9084c8 100644 --- a/builtin/branch.c +++ b/builtin/branch.c @@ -235,11 +235,8 @@ static int delete_branches(int argc, const char **argv, int force, int kinds, } branch_name_pos = strcspn(fmt, "%"); - if (!force) { + if (!force) head_rev = lookup_commit_reference(the_repository, &head_oid); - if (!head_rev) - die(_("Couldn't look up commit object for HEAD")); - } for (i = 0; i < argc; i++, strbuf_reset(&bname)) { char *target = NULL; diff --git a/t/t3200-branch.sh b/t/t3200-branch.sh index 7f605f865b..464d3f610b 100755 --- a/t/t3200-branch.sh +++ b/t/t3200-branch.sh @@ -279,6 +279,13 @@ test_expect_success 'git branch -M and -C fail on detached HEAD' ' test_cmp expect err ' +test_expect_success 'git branch -d on detached HEAD' ' + test_when_finished git checkout main && + git checkout --orphan orphan && + test_must_fail git branch -d main 2>err && + grep "not fully merged" err +' + test_expect_success 'git branch -v -d t should work' ' git branch t && git rev-parse --verify refs/heads/t && -- 2.38.0.16.g393fd4c6db