"error: pathspec '....' did not match any file(s) known to git" on bare repository

Question

Set up

• Local normal repository (git init), git version 2.17.0.windows.1
• Bare repository (git init --bare) on a separate server git version 2.7.4
• Gogs as a UI to the bare repository

Problem

This has been working fine for a couple of years, few hitches. However, I've created a pull request on Gogs and tried to merge it, and it's come up with a 500 error, and a message

An error has occurred : git checkout 'development': error: pathspec 'development' did not match any file(s) known to git.

(development is the branch I'm trying to merge to)

I tried re-creating the repository - created a new, blank repository, pushed all the branches there again, and tried the merge again - got the same error.

The branch definitely exists on both the local & remote repositories. Is there a way to fix the problem?

Answer 1

It seems to have been fixed in Gogs 0.11.63 (maybe even in 0.11.53, I didn't test that one). You might want to try it out.

Answer 2

Looks like it might be a Gogs-specific problem/bug. I've downgraded to the previous version, and the problem's gone away. Will keep this open in case someone finds a better solution ...