Not on a branch after clone

Question

I cloned a repository, that has only one remote branch, namely master. After the cloning I get the message, that I'm in a detached HEAD state and git branch also says (no branch).

Git log shows only the initial commit of the repository. After I enter git checkout master, everything is as it should be.

Does anybody know what the problem is?

If you have access to the original repository, make sure that the HEAD reference points to the `master` branch. — Guillaume Darmont, Apr 18 '14 at 20:10
Yes. I made all commits except the initial one. I also worked with git before and did nothing new that could trigger such a behaviour. — skappler, Apr 18 '14 at 20:11
I am the only one working on this repo. But I don't have access to the server. How do I make HEAD point to master? — skappler, Apr 18 '14 at 20:13
Without access to the server, you can't fix the problem, you can only work around it by doing an explicit "git checkout" after the initial clone. — torek, Apr 18 '14 at 21:17
@user1839433 You can make HEAD point to master by doing `git checkout master` — Klas Mellbourn, Apr 18 '14 at 21:59

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:32

1

That would be because HEAD on the remote repository doesn't reference a branch, but a commit.

git-symbolic-ref HEAD refs/heads/master

That would change HEAD on remote (as I mentioned 4 years ago), but supposes you have access to the remote repo (which you don't have).

So jthill's suggestion is still the best:

git clone -b master /url/of/remote/repo

edited May 23 '17 at 10:32

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answered Apr 19 '14 at 07:02

VonC

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Not on a branch after clone

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