[please reply inline rather than top-posting; I've moved your reply inline for this response] On Thu, Mar 28, 2024 at 1:40 PM Tamir Duberstein <tamird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Thu, Mar 28, 2024 at 5:24 PM Eric Sunshine <sunshine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > On Thu, Mar 28, 2024 at 10:54 AM Tamir Duberstein <tamird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > % git branch -d cleanup > > > error: cannot delete branch 'cleanup' used by worktree at '<my source dir>' > > > % git worktree list > > > <my source dir> dc46f6d5e [main] > > > % git branch > > > cleanup > > > * main > > > > Is this error persistent once it arises? That is, if you invoke `git > > branch -d cleanup` again immediately after (or a little while after) > > the above sequence, does the problem persist? Or does it "clear up" on > > its own at some point? > > Yes, the problem is persistent. The branch is never deleted. I'd guess that there may be some sort of "ref" still pointing at the "cleanup" branch which presumably was, at some point, checked out at "<my source dir>". Digging through the code[1,2,3] suggests that you might have some stale state from a rebase, bisect, or other sequencer operation which still references the "cleanup" branch. [Cc'ing Phillip who is probably much more familiar with this code than am I.] By the way, it's not clear from your initial report what you mean when you say "then the remote deleted the branch". Also, did you fetch and/or pull from the remote after that? [1]: https://github.com/git/git/blob/d6fd04375f91/branch.c#L454 [2]: https://github.com/git/git/blob/d6fd04375f91/branch.c#L386 [3]: https://github.com/git/git/blob/d6fd04375f91/sequencer.c#L6551