Git – Rename Local Branch Failed

branchgitrename

I don't know why my attempt of renaming local branch failed. I basically cloned the project, then I also have a submodule within the project, and I downloaded the submodule code as well. However, when I use git branch within the submodule, I have:

* (no branch)
  master

The code looks like I'm on another branch but the output shows that it doesn't have a name. Then I searched online to find how to rename local branch and I got this:

git branch -m <newname>

After I run this command git gave me this error:

error: refname refs/heads/HEAD not found
fatal: Branch rename failed

Anybody know why this happens? Thanks.

Best Answer

I get into this issue too. The reason is that I didn't have any commit on this git repository.

When I run the command git branch -M main. I get the following error message.

error: refname refs/heads/master not found
fatal: Branch rename failed

After I add my first commit by the following command, all things work.

git add .
git commit -m 'Init'
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