How to remove invalid remote repository

How to remove invalid remote repository

[Matt Seitz]

I mistakenly entered the wrong directory name for "git remote add" (I
entered the working tree directory name instead of the ".git" directory
name). 

So "git fetch" fails with:

fatal: 'origin': unable to chdir or not a git archive
fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly

Cannot get the repository state from origin

So, I tried removing the remote tracking branches:

git branch -d -r root-etc/master

But that failed with:

error: remote branch 'root-etc/master' not found.


So I then tried recreating the remote reference:

git remote add root-etc /root/git/etc/.git
But that failed with:

remote root-etc already exists

So, how can I remove the incorrect remote repository reference and
replace it with a correct one?

[root@demo5 etc]# git config -l
core.repositoryformatversion=0

core.filemode=true

core.bare=false

core.logallrefupdates=true

gui.geometry=811x591+781+0 107 172

remote.root-etc.url=/root/git/etc

remote.root-etc.fetch=+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/root-etc/*

[root@demo5 etc]# git version

git version 1.5.0.7

Re: How to remove invalid remote repository

[Jan Hudec]

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On Tue, Jun 05, 2007 at 14:41:04 -0500, Matt Seitz wrote:
> I mistakenly entered the wrong directory name for "git remote add" (I
> entered the working tree directory name instead of the ".git" directory
> name). 

There does not seem to be any 'git remote remove'. So you'll do it by
changing the config. Either with git-config, or by editing .git/config (it
*IS* meant to be hand-edited).

> [...]
> So, how can I remove the incorrect remote repository reference and
> replace it with a correct one?
> 
> [root@demo5 etc]# git config -l
> [...]
> remote.root-etc.url=/root/git/etc
                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is the URL. You can simply fix it either with 
    git-config remote.root-etc.url /root/git/etc/.git
or by editing
.git/config

> remote.root-etc.fetch=+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/root-etc/*

The section corresponding to these two entries in .git/config looks like:

[remote "root-etc"]
url = /root/git/etc
fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/root-etc/*

You can tweak it to your heart's content. The documentation is in man pages
of git-config and git-fetch.

-- 
						 Jan 'Bulb' Hudec <bulb@ucw.cz>

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Re: How to remove invalid remote repository

[Linus Torvalds]

On Tue, 5 Jun 2007, Matt Seitz wrote:
>
> I mistakenly entered the wrong directory name for "git remote add" (I
> entered the working tree directory name instead of the ".git" directory
> name). 

Now, that should be fine. You don't have to add the .git name, git will 
figure it out on its own.

> So "git fetch" fails with:
> 
> fatal: 'origin': unable to chdir or not a git archive
> fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly

Well, this is because you apparently didn't call the remote "origin", but 
something else. So when you do

	git fetch

without giving any remote name at all, git will *default* to using 
"origin" as a remote, but since no such remote name exists, it will try to 
use that remote as a pathname (which is admittedly a bit silly, but git 
doesn't know that), and so what happened was that it was trying to fetch 
from the git repository "origin", but no such git repository existed, and 
thus it says:

	fatal: 'origin': unable to chdir or not a git archive

In fact, the remote name you added seems to be "root-etc", juding from 
your config file (which I've recreated here by looking at your "git 
config -l" output - things like whitespace may be off):

	[core]
		repositoryformatversion=0
		filemode=true
		bare=false
		logallrefupdates=true

	[gui]
		geometry=811x591+781+0 107 172

	[remote "root-etc"]
		url=/root/git/etc
		fetch=+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/root-etc/*

> So, I tried removing the remote tracking branches:
> 
> git branch -d -r root-etc/master
> 
> But that failed with:
> 
> error: remote branch 'root-etc/master' not found.

The easiest way to remove the remote is _literally_ by just editing the 
".git/config" file. It's not magic, and the syntax really is as trivial as 
it looks, and it's perfectly ok to just fire up an editor and fix it up. 

In this case, the easiest fix is to not delete that remote entry at all 
(it's a fine entry, afaik), but you have to tell git that your local 
"master" branch should track it.  You do that by just adding

	[branch "master"]
		remote = root-etc
		merge = refs/heads/master

which tells git that when you are on the "master" branch, and do a "git 
fetch", it should fetch from that "root-etc" remote (and if you doa 
"pull", which implies also merging, it should merge the 
"refs/heads/master" branch from that remote into your local master).

> So I then tried recreating the remote reference:
> 
> git remote add root-etc /root/git/etc/.git
>
> But that failed with:
> 
> remote root-etc already exists

Right. It already does, because you already have it, and your previous add 
already worked. The only issue is that since you didn't tell that your 
current branch should be hooked up with that particular remote, so git 
ended up using the default (which is called "origin", not "root-etc").

		Linus

RE: How to remove invalid remote repository

[Matt Seitz]

From: Linus Torvalds [mailto:torvalds@linux-foundation.org] 
> Well, this is because you apparently didn't call the remote 
> "origin", but something else. So when you do
> 
> 	git fetch
> 
> without giving any remote name at all, git will *default* to 
> using "origin" as a remote,

Ah, I see now.  I misread that section of the "Git User's Manual".
Using 

git fetch root-etc

worked fine.

Sorry to have bothered everyone with my error.