How do I create a master branch in a bare Git repository

Question

All done in poshgit on Windows 8    git init --bare test-repo git cd test-repo git    Folder is created with git-ish files and folders inside   git status   fatal  This operation must be run in a work tree  Okay  so I can t use git status with a bare repo  makes sense I guess   git branch    Nothing  it seems the bare repo doesn t contain any branches  Do I have to add them from a cloned repo    cd    mkdir test-clone cd test-clone git clone    test-repo git    I get a warning about cloning an empty repository   cd test-repo    The prompt changes to indicate I am on the master branch   git branch    Shows no results - eh    git branch master   fatal  Not a valid object name   master   Um  So how do I create the master branch in my bare repo

User · Answer

You don t need to use a second repository - you can do commands like git checkout and git commit on a bare repository  if only you supply a dummy work directory using the --work-tree option  Prepare a dummy directory    rm -rf  tmp empty directory   mkdir   tmp empty directory  Create the master branch without a parent  works even on a completely empty repo     cd your-bare-repository git    git checkout --work-tree  tmp empty directory --orphan master Switched to a new branch  master                    lt --- abort if  quot master quot  already exists  Create a commit  it can be a message-only  without adding any files  because what you need is simply having at least one commit     git commit -m  quot Initial commit quot  --allow-empty --work-tree  tmp empty directory     git branch   master  Clean up the directory  it is still empty    rmdir   tmp empty directory  Tested on git 1 9 1   Specifically for OP  the posh-git is just a PowerShell wrapper for standard git

User · Answer

By default there will be no branches listed and pops up only after some file is placed  You don t have to worry much about it  Just run all your commands like creating folder structures  adding deleting files  commiting files  pushing it to server or creating branches  It works seamlessly without any issue   https   git-scm com docs

User · Answer

A bare repository is pretty much something you only push to and fetch from  You cannot do much directly  in it   you cannot check stuff out  create references  branches  tags   run git status  etc   If you want to create a new branch in a bare Git repository  you can push a branch from a clone to your bare repo     initialize your bare repo   git init --bare test-repo git    clone it and cd to the clone s root directory   git clone test-repo git  test-clone Cloning into  test-clone     warning  You appear to have cloned an empty repository  done    cd test-clone    make an initial commit in the clone   touch README md   git add      git commit -m  add README   master  root-commit  65aab0e  add README  1 file changed  0 insertions     0 deletions -   create mode 100644 README md    push to origin  i e  your bare repo    git push origin master Counting objects  3  done  Writing objects  100   3 3   219 bytes   0 bytes s  done  Total 3  delta 0   reused 0  delta 0  To  Users jubobs test-repo git      new branch       master - gt  master

User · Answer

A branch is just a reference to a commit  Until you commit anything to the repository  you don t have any branches  You can see this in a non-bare repository as well     mkdir repo   cd repo   git init Initialized empty Git repository in  home me repo  git    git branch   touch foo   git add foo   git commit -m  new file  1 file changed  0 insertions     0 deletions -  create mode 100644 foo   git branch   master

[git] How do I create a master branch in a bare Git repository?

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