How to fix "corrupted" interactive rebase?

Question

I managed to create a little mess in my local git repository. I was trying to fix a broken commit by using the following instructions. Before running the "git commit --amend" (and after the git rebase --interactive) I decided that my changes were incorrect and so I executed "git reset HEAD --hard". Not a good idea, I tell you.

Now the interactive rebase seems to be "stuck". Git shows the current branch as (|REBASE-m). Every command (cd .., ls, git rebase...) inside my repository gives the following error:

cat: .git/rebase-merge/head-name: No such file or directory

Here's how git rebase --abort looks like:

$ git rebase --abort
cat: c:/_work/project/src/git/.git/rebase-merge/quiet: No such file or directory
cat: c:/_work/project/src/git/.git/rebase-merge/head-name: No such file or directory
cat: c:/_work/project/src/git/.git/rebase-merge/orig-head: No such file or directory
HEAD is now at 4c737fb Revert "Modified file names"
rm: cannot remove `c:/_work/project/src/git/.git/rebase-merge/done': Permission denied
rm: cannot remove directory `c:/_work/project/src/git/.git/rebase-merge': Directory
not empty
cat: .git/rebase-merge/head-name: No such file or directory

Here's the result of git rebase --continue:

$ git rebase --continue
cat: c:/_work/project/src/git/.git/rebase-merge/prev_head: No such file or directory
cat: c:/_work/project/src/git/.git/rebase-merge/end: No such file or directory
cat: c:/_work/project/src/git/.git/rebase-merge/msgnum: No such file or directory
cat: c:/_work/project/src/git/.git/rebase-merge/onto: No such file or directory
cat: c:/_work/project/src/git/.git/rebase-merge/quiet: No such file or directory
prev_head must be defined
cat: .git/rebase-merge/head-name: No such file or directory

Any ideas? I would like to reset the situation back to the state it was before I started my well-thought rebase operation.

Here's how git log --oneline shows the situation:

4c737fb Revert "Modified file names"
247ac02 Modified file names
33141e6 Message modifications
10a4a04 Modified db script

And this is fine.

I'm using msysgit v1.7.0.2.

score 747 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 27 '22 at 00:08

747

I got stuck in this. I created the head-name file, and then I ran into another error saying it couldn't find the onto file, so I created that file. Then I got another error saying could not read '.git/rebase-apply/onto': No such file or directory.

So I looked at the git documentation for rebasing and found another command:

git rebase --quit

This set me back on my branch with no changes, and I could start my rebase over again, good as new.

edited Jun 27 '22 at 00:08

alexwho314

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answered Feb 28 '19 at 20:02

Laura Slocum

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`--quit` worked. `--abort` didn't because the rebase was cancelled half way through – Kalob Taulien Sep 27 '19 at 21:51
6

I had similar rebase-related error, just with different error message. Tried: `$ git rebase --abort` Output: `error: could not read '.git/rebase-apply/head-name': No such file or directory` Finally, this solution fixes my problem: `git rebase --quit` – aff Nov 14 '19 at 06:24
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Upvoted. `git rebase --quit` absolutely saved me. Same symptoms as described, but mine came after trying to do a `git pull --rebase`, which for some reason failed. Note I had autostash enabled (git version 2.27.0.windows.1) and had VS2019 running (pointed at that repo) at the same time - suspect some combination of these messed it up. – ErrCode Jun 10 '20 at 04:11
I was worried I'd have to re-do all the rebasing work after `git rebase --quit`, so I backed up the whole tree first, but after quiting and starting the rebase again, there were no conflicts to resolve! I might have been helped by my "rerere" configuration set up before the rebase started. https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Tools-Rerere – Mark Stosberg Apr 20 '22 at 16:35
As said in comments of the accepted answer, `git rebase --quit` will wipe the `.git/rebase-merge` folder, **including autostash**. If you had an autostash (with `git rebase --autostash`), make sure to save its commit hash (found in `.git/rebase-merge/autostash`) before running this command so you can easily reapply it afterwards with `git stash apply `. – kagmole Jul 07 '22 at 07:32

Martin Owen · Accepted Answer · 2010-09-10T19:00:11.997

216

It looks like Git tried to remove the .git/rebase-merge directory but wasn't able to remove it completely. Have you tried copying that folder away? Also copy away the .git/rebase-apply folder if that is present.

edited Sep 10 '10 at 19:00

answered Sep 10 '10 at 18:47

Martin Owen

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Thanks for pointing that out. I was able to fix my problem just by restarting the computer. I'm not sure what went wrong because somehow every access to the .git\rebase-merge folder caused an "Access denied" -error. – Mikael Koskinen Sep 13 '10 at 05:07
28

Reboot did not work for me but `git rebase --abort` (from http://stackoverflow.com/a/4757777/146044) _did_ work. – backus Mar 28 '16 at 02:24
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a word of warning... i had 4 hours worth of changes on my working directory when i noticed the corrupted rebase error. tried the `git rebase --abort` it wiped my unstaged changes... the error did disappear though – George Ananda Eman Sep 26 '16 at 12:22
Removing REBASE_HEAD, rebase-apply/ and rebased-patches in .git worked for me – MyrionSC2 Apr 02 '20 at 09:04
8

`git rebase --quit` worked for me but I lost all autostashed changes like @GeorgeAnandaEman => it is possible to recover them though by using the answer in https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37845799/how-do-you-get-a-lost-autostash-commit-from-git-rebase-autostash explaining how to see all autostash commits – tiho Jul 15 '20 at 20:25
For IntelliJ users: Git > Rebase... > Abort Rebase. – Trayan Momkov Feb 17 '21 at 09:14
yeah, I deleted .git/rebase-merge and the rebase was fully gone. Easy fix. I was using Merge , by sublime-text. I hate that app, im done with it – Norman Bird Dec 28 '22 at 20:33

score 94 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 21 '11 at 10:37

94

I had a similar problem due to a zombie vim.exe process. Killing it in Task Manager, followed by a git rebase --abort fixed it.

answered Jan 21 '11 at 10:37

user584317

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this was my problem too. I used sysinternals `handle` command and saw that a process (sh.exe) had the file locked. Using `pskill ` fixed it for me. – Paul Oliver Aug 17 '15 at 23:07
i tried git rebase --abort but got an error error: could not read '.git/rebase-apply/head-name': No such file or directory; git rebase --quit worked – Andrei Diaconescu Nov 01 '21 at 10:22

score 40 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 12 '19 at 08:49

Thanks @Laura Slocum for your answer

I messed things up while rebasing and got a detached HEAD with an

 error: could not read orig-head

that prevented me from finishing the rebasing.

The detached HEAD seem to contain precisely my correct rebase desired state, so I ran

rebase --quit

and after that I checked out a new temp branch to bind it to the detached head.

By comparing it with the branch I wanted to rebase, I can see the new temp branch is exactly in the state I wanted to reach. Thanks

score 7 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 04 '14 at 06:46

7

Had same problem in Eclipse. Could not Rebase=>abort from Eclipse.

Executing git rebase --abort from Git Bash Worked for me.

answered Apr 04 '14 at 06:46

Praveen Hiremath

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score 7 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 27 '15 at 10:32

On Windows, if you are unwilling or unable to restart the machine see below.

Install Process Explorer: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

In Process Explorer, Find > File Handle or DLL ...

Type in the file name mentioned in the error (for my error it was 'git-rebase-todo' but in the question above, 'done').

Process Explorer will highlight the process holding a lock on the file (for me it was 'grep').

Kill the process and you will be able to abort the git action in the standard way.

score 6 · Answer 7 · edited Apr 06 '15 at 15:39

6

Create a file with this name:

touch .git/rebase-merge/head-name

and than use git rebase

edited Apr 06 '15 at 15:39

Ethaan

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answered Apr 06 '15 at 15:20

Tehila Dabush

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touch: cannot touch '.git/rebase-merge/head-name': No such file or directory – aksyuma Aug 04 '22 at 14:50

score 6 · Answer 8 · answered Feb 20 '19 at 12:25

6

In my case eighter git rebase --abort and git rebase --continue was throwing:

error: could not read '.git/rebase-apply/head-name': No such file or directory

I managed to fix this issue by manually removing: .git\rebase-apply directory.

answered Feb 20 '19 at 12:25

Dariusz

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score 3 · Answer 9 · answered Dec 06 '18 at 19:07

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I'm using git version 2.19.2.windows.1.

the only thing that worked for me was to remove the .git/rebase-apply/ directory and do a git reset --hard.

answered Dec 06 '18 at 19:07

Spongman

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score 3 · Answer 10 · answered Jan 03 '19 at 05:34

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I have tried all the above steps mentioned but nothing worked for me. Finally, restarting the computer worked for this issue :D

answered Jan 03 '19 at 05:34

Mohammed Asif

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this is what worked for me. Danke! – aksyuma Aug 04 '22 at 15:09

score 2 · Answer 11 · answered Mar 28 '19 at 10:13

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With SublimeText 3 on Windows, the problem is fixed by just closing the Sublime windows used for interactive commit edition.

answered Mar 28 '19 at 10:13

LeBorgne

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score 2 · Answer 12 · answered May 10 '20 at 01:34

If you get below state and rebase does not work anymore,

$ git status
rebase in progress; onto (null)
You are currently rebasing.
  (all conflicts fixed: run "git rebase --continue")

Then first run,

$ git rebase -quit

And then restore previous state from reflog,

$ git reflog
97f7c6f (HEAD, origin/master, origin/HEAD) HEAD@{0}: pull --rebase: checkout 97f7c6f292d995b2925c2ea036bb4823a856e1aa
4035795 (master) HEAD@{1}: commit (amend): Adding 2nd commit
d16be84 HEAD@{2}: commit (amend): Adding 2nd commit
8577ca8 HEAD@{3}: commit: Adding 2nd commit
3d2088d HEAD@{4}: reset: moving to head~
52eec4a HEAD@{5}: commit: Adding initial commit

Using,

$ git checkout HEAD@{1} #or
$ git checkout master #or
$ git checkout 4035795 #or

meridius · Answer 13 · 2016-03-09T08:58:10.377

In my case it was because I had opened SmartGit's Log in the respective Git project and Total Commander in the respective project directory. When I closed both I was able to rebase without any problem.

The more I think about it, the more I suspect Total Commander, i.e. Windows having a lock on opened directory the git rebase was trying to something with.

Friendly advice: When you try to fix something, always do one change at a time. ;)

score 0 · Answer 14 · edited Nov 21 '13 at 23:10

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Once you have satisfactorily completed rebasing X number of commits , the last command must be git rebase --continue . That completes the process and exits out of the rebase mode .

edited Nov 21 '13 at 23:10

Karel Bílek

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answered Oct 24 '13 at 16:25

diptia

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score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Jul 09 '14 at 00:38

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I had the same problem. I used process explorer as suggested in other post (i am not able to find that post) and figured out which process has a lock on the file and kill it. then execute the --continue or --abort as per needs

answered Jul 09 '14 at 00:38

user3739537

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score 0 · Answer 16 · answered May 03 '16 at 13:34

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In my case after testing all this options and still having issues i tried sudo git rebase --abort and it did the whole thing

answered May 03 '16 at 13:34

Dani.Rangelov

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Be careful if you're doing this in the middle of an actual rebase. Just lost my changes :'( – Freeman Sep 11 '17 at 10:05
It was considered "corrupted", then you start over with the rebase – Dani.Rangelov Sep 12 '17 at 07:19

score 0 · Answer 17 · answered May 07 '19 at 12:59

0

tried everything else but a reboot, what worked for me is rm -fr .git/REBASE_HEAD

answered May 07 '19 at 12:59

Jeremy Vaught

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score 0 · Answer 18 · answered Aug 21 '22 at 09:22

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I had a commit running in my VSCode that made it stuck. killed the VS Code process and did recover (R) to the rebase. Fixed it for me.

answered Aug 21 '22 at 09:22

Orit

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score 0 · Answer 19 · answered Apr 11 '23 at 21:43

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I was missing the "author-script" because it was already used in the last commit I did (on accident). I undid that last commit, and committed everything in one. (I'm using git-branchless fwiw)

answered Apr 11 '23 at 21:43

Devin Rhode

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score -3 · Answer 20 · answered Oct 14 '14 at 12:57

-3

I am using git in eclipse and I was having the same problem.

Eventually I found that the "Rebase ..." menu entry was temporarily transformed into a sub-menu.

Team-> Rebase -> Abort

It worked for me.

answered Oct 14 '14 at 12:57

Shiva Agrawal

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How to fix "corrupted" interactive rebase?

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