I’m not sure why I’m unable to checkout a branch that I had worked on earlier. See the commands below (note: co is an alias for checkout):
ramon@ramon-desktop:~/source/unstilted$ git branch -a
* develop
feature/datts_right
feature/user_controlled_menu
feature/user_controlled_site_layouts
master
remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master
remotes/origin/develop
remotes/origin/feature/datts_right
remotes/origin/master
ramon@ramon-desktop:~/source/unstilted$ git co feature/user_controlled_site_layouts
error: pathspec 'feature/user_controlled_site_layouts' did not match any file(s) known to git.
I’m not sure what it means, and I can’t seem to find anything I can understand on Google.
How do I checkout that branch, and what may I have done to break this?
UPDATE:
I found this post, and running git show-ref gives me:
97e2cb33914e763ff92bbe38531d3fd02408da46 refs/heads/develop
c438c439c66da3f2356d2449505c073549b221c1 refs/heads/feature/datts_right
11a90dae8897ceed318700b9af3019f4b4dceb1e refs/heads/feature/user_controlled_menu
c889b37a5ee690986935c9c74b71999e2cf3c6d7 refs/heads/master
c889b37a5ee690986935c9c74b71999e2cf3c6d7 refs/remotes/origin/HEAD
e7c17eb40610505eea4e6687e4572191216ad4c6 refs/remotes/origin/develop
c438c439c66da3f2356d2449505c073549b221c1 refs/remotes/origin/feature/datts_right
c889b37a5ee690986935c9c74b71999e2cf3c6d7 refs/remotes/origin/master
23768aa5425cbf29d10ff24274adad42d90d15cc refs/stash
e572cf91e95da03f04a5e51820f58a7306ce01de refs/tags/menu_shows_published_only
429ebaa895d9d41d835a34da72676caa75902e3d refs/tags/slow_dev
UPDATE on .git directory (user_controlled_site_layouts is in the refs/heads/feature folder):
$ ls .git/refs/heads/feature/
datts_right user_controlled_menu user_controlled_site_layouts
$ cat .git/refs/heads/feature/user_controlled_site_layouts
3af84fcf1508c44013844dcd0998a14e61455034
UPDATE on git show 3af84fcf1508c44013844dcd0998a14e61455034
$ git show 3af84fcf1508c44013844dcd0998a14e61455034
commit 3af84fcf1508c44013844dcd0998a14e61455034
Author: Ramon Tayag <xxx@xxxxx.xxx>
Date: Thu May 12 19:00:03 2011 +0800
Removed site layouts migration
diff --git a/db/schema.rb b/db/schema.rb
index 1218fc8..2040b9f 100755
--- a/db/schema.rb
+++ b/db/schema.rb
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
#
# It's strongly recommended to check this file into your version control system.
-ActiveRecord::Schema.define(:version => 20110511012647) do
+ActiveRecord::Schema.define(:version => 20110503040056) do
create_table "attachments", :force => true do |t|
t.string "name"
@@ -205,15 +205,6 @@ ActiveRecord::Schema.define(:version => 20110511012647) do
t.integer "old_id"
end
- create_table "site_layouts", :force => true do |t|
- t.string "name"
- t.text "description"
- t.text "content"
- t.integer "site_id"
- t.datetime "created_at"
- t.datetime "updated_at"
- end
-
create_table "site_styles", :force => true do |t|
t.text "published"
t.datetime "created_at"
Scenarios that emerge
In the local init, a repository is created, and then a develop ment branch is created, on which file operations are performed, followed by changes made by commit.
$ git init Initialized empty Git repository in D:/practice/testBranch/.git/ $ git checkout -b develop Switched to a new branch 'develop' $ vim a.txt $ git add a.txt $ git commit -m "add a new file" [develop (root-commit) f9ac3b8] add a new file 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+) create mode 100644 a.txt
Then you cut to the master branch and do the file operation. Then the following mistakes will occur:
$ git checkout master error: pathspec 'master' did not match any file(s) known to git.
Reasons for the problem
Command parsing
The git init command creates a master branch by default and points the HEAD (which is a special pointer to the current local branch) to that branch. Nevertheless, you can’t see any branches when you view local and remote branches through the GIT branch-a command.
The git checkout master command actually does two things: one is to make HEAD refer back to the master branch; the other is to restore the working directory to the snapshot content that the master branch refers to.
problem analysis
After HEAD refers back to the master branch, it is necessary to restore the working directory to the content that the master branch refers to. But since you’ve been working on the develop ment branch since the beginning, the working directory corresponding to the master branch is equivalent to nothing, so that no files can be matched.
How to solve
You just need to initialize a repository, first do some commit operations on the master branch, such as adding a README.md file, so that you really create a master branch. For example:
$ git init Reinitialized existing Git repository in D:/practice/testBranch/.git/ $ vim README.md $ git add README.md warning: LF will be replaced by CRLF in README.md. The file will have its original line endings in your working directory. $ git commit -m "add a new file" [master (root-commit) 0e8c7c3] add a new file 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+) create mode 100644 README.md $ git push Counting objects: 3, done. Writing objects: 100% (3/3), 219 bytes | 0 bytes/s, done. Total 3 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0) remote: remote: Create a pull request for 'master' on GitHub by visiting: remote: https://github.com/benben/testBranch/pull/new/master remote: To github.com:benben/testBranch.git * [new branch] master -> master
When push ing, you can see the prompt to create a master branch in the remote warehouse, and the local master branch points to the remote master branch.
Then you can see all local and remote branches through git branch-a. Then you can create other branches and switch between master branches at will.
$ git branch -a * master remotes/origin/master
When switching branches, be aware that the files in your working directory will be changed. If you switch to an older branch, your working directory will be restored to what it looked like when it was last submitted. If Git can’t do this cleanly, it will prohibit branch switching.
Maria Yudina
Posted on Nov 14, 2021
• Updated on Dec 3, 2022
Sometimes after repository checkout you can encounter the error trying to switch branches:
git checkout branch_name
error: pathspec 'branch_name' did not match any file(s) known to git
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To fix that you can remove remote origin and link it again.
First, check the remote origin:
git remote -v
origin git@github.com:company/project_name (fetch)
origin git@github.com:company/project_name (push)
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Then remove origin:
git remote remove origin
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And add remote origin again with correct path from your repository (copy from GitHub/GitLab/etc.):
git remote add origin git@github.com:company/project_name.git
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After that run:
git pull --ff-only
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And set upstream to origin branch:
git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/current_branch
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After this you should be able to switch between the branches as usual.
This error message indicates that Git was unable to checkout the specified branch because it does not exist. This can happen for a few different reasons, including the following:
- The branch name is misspelled or mistyped.
- The branch has already been deleted or is no longer available.
- The branch exists in a remote repository, but it has not yet been pulled or fetched to the local repository.
To fix this error, you will need to verify that the branch name is correct and that the branch exists in the local repository. If the branch name is correct and the branch still does not exist, you may need to pull or fetch the branch from the remote repository where it exists.
If the branch has already been deleted or is no longer available, you will need to create a new branch with a different name or switch to a different existing branch.
Overall, this error can be resolved by checking the branch name and ensuring that the branch exists in the local repository. If necessary, you can also try pulling or fetching the branch from the remote repository where it exists.