How to resolve git's "not something we can merge" error

Question

I just encountered a problem when merging a branch into master in git. First, I got the branch name by running git ls-remote. Let's call that branch "branch-name". I then ran git merge branch-name command and got the following result:

fatal: branch-name - not something we can merge

How do I resolve this error?

score 407 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

407

As shown in How does "not something we can merge" arise?, this error can arise from a typo in the branch name because you are trying to pull a branch that doesn't exist.

If that is not the problem (as in my case), it is likely that you don't have a local copy of the branch that you want to merge. Git requires local knowledge of both branches in order to merge those branches. You can resolve this by checking out the branch to merge and then going back to the branch you want to merge into.

git checkout branch-name
git checkout master
git merge branch-name

This should work, but if you receive an error saying

error: pathspec 'remote-name/branch-name' did not match any file(s) known to git.

you need to fetch the remote (probably, but not necessarily, "origin") before checking out the branch:

git fetch remote-name

edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

Community

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answered May 31 '13 at 17:41

Brian

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This happened to me after adding a new remote - I needed to do a `git fetch` first before merging the remote branch in. – Jason May 13 '14 at 19:18
fetching and checkout out branch from remote. git fetch && git checkout BranchName – Juni Brosas Jun 17 '16 at 02:04
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This happened to me when I was cd'd into the wrong project (i.e. it was a different repo that didn't even have the branch I wanted to merge) – JoelFan Nov 23 '16 at 16:58
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If you're trying to sync a fork at the command line (https://help.github.com/articles/syncing-a-fork/) this error is probably because you missed step 0. What? There's no step 0 listed? Yes, that's why it's easy to miss. "Before you can sync your fork with an upstream repository, you must configure a remote that points to the upstream repository in Git." – Steve Bonds Mar 13 '18 at 00:16
In my case I had a branch name `v1.0(1)` and changing it to `v1.0-1` resolved the error. – Manuel Jun 03 '18 at 12:25
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`Git requires local knowledge of both branches in order to merge those branches` – Gangadhar JANNU Mar 20 '19 at 07:47
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Worked for me (i have cloned from repository) – yasin-munshi Sep 29 '19 at 02:43
This occurred when I fetched but **did not checkout** the desired branch. – Silidrone Mar 22 '20 at 06:14
Worked like a charm! I didn't have a local version of my remote branch. – Taslim Oseni Aug 17 '20 at 11:54
I was trying to merge a branch with name in lowercase (the real name was in uppercase) and got merge: origin/branch_name - not something we can merge – Igor Vuković Dec 15 '20 at 13:17

score 121 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 25 '15 at 20:40

121

It's a silly suggestion, but make sure there is no typo in the branch name!

edited Aug 25 '15 at 20:40

pkamb

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answered Jan 05 '14 at 01:17

endless

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not so silly, as "typo" could reduce to the fact that the branch hasn't been fetched yet (and thereby unknown locally) .. Git does things differently than CVS or SVN .. – klang Jan 21 '14 at 12:29
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The problem could also be caused if the branch name contains characters like commas (,) or apostrophes ('). – AxeEffect Jun 22 '15 at 12:35
Also make sure you are in the correct repo or terminal window/tab especially if you work on multiple repos simultaneously. – totymedli Jul 05 '19 at 13:53
this happened to me with uneven master/main renaming across forks! – Rian Sanderson May 05 '21 at 18:48

Eneko Alonso · Answer 3 · 2017-02-13T22:10:49.493

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When pulling from a remote upstream, git fetch --all did the trick for me:

git remote add upstream [url to the original repo]
git checkout [branch to be updated]
git fetch --all
git merge upstream/[branch to be updated]

In other cases, I found the "Not something we can merge" error will also happen if the remote (origin, upstream) branch does not exist. This might seem obvious, but you might find yourself doing git merge origin/develop on a repo that only has master.

edited Feb 13 '17 at 22:10

answered Aug 25 '15 at 20:37

Eneko Alonso

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I seriously don't know why this answer has not garnered as many votes as the above one. 'git fetch -all' is the command that one typically misses to run before merging a remote branch and that solved the problem for me. – Dayanand Gowda Mar 31 '16 at 16:34
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Because fetch does not pull automatically and you have to do this manually. So a pair fetch --all & pull --all will do the trick. – danielpopa May 18 '16 at 11:27
Thank you! The `git remote add upstream` was the important thing I was missing that solved it for me. I think a common mistake is assuming a fork automatically knows where it was forked from. – Brent May 26 '16 at 20:43

score 28 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 04 '14 at 23:39

28

I had this issue as well. The branch looked like 'username/master' which seemed to confuse git as it looked like a remote address I defined. For me using this

git merge origin/username/master

worked perfectly fine.

answered Dec 04 '14 at 23:39

spekulatius

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I had to put `origin/` before the name of the remote branch too. – AsGoodAsItGets Aug 21 '17 at 09:32
You'll have to do this if the branch's name has a forward slash `/` in it. – CTS_AE Oct 17 '19 at 09:18

score 25 · Answer 5 · edited Jan 15 '19 at 13:27

25

The below method works for me every time.

git checkout master
git pull
git checkout branch-name-to-be-merged
git pull
git checkout branch-name
git pull
git merge branch-name-to-be-merged

edited Jan 15 '19 at 13:27

SherylHohman

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answered Sep 14 '18 at 07:15

R.N.V.

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This worked for me thank you. I this is essentially the right solution: basically make sure you have the source branch checked out before trying to merge it in. – dps Jun 03 '19 at 21:31

score 12 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 11 '18 at 08:07

12

It may happen because that branch is not on your local. before merging use

git fetch origin

answered Apr 11 '18 at 08:07

Alok Kamboj

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yala ramesh · Answer 7 · 2020-06-21T19:42:39.930

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This answer is not related to the above question, but I faced a similar issue, and maybe this will be useful to someone. I am trying to merge my feature branch to master like below:

$ git merge fix-load

for this got the following error message:

merge: fix-load - not something we can merge

I looked into above all solutions, but not none of the worked.

Finally, I realized the issue cause is a spelling mistake on my branch name (actually, the merge branch name is fix-loads).

edited Jun 21 '20 at 19:42

answered Aug 29 '18 at 13:23

yala ramesh

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For me, adding origin worked. Taking your example, `git merge origin/fix-loads` worked. – Ram Patra Oct 03 '19 at 14:49

score 7 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 15 '16 at 13:07

7

You are getting this error because the branch you want to merge doesn't exist on your local repository.

So, first checkout the brach you want to merge into master branch by the following command:

git checkout branch_name_to_merge

After this try to merge it with master branch by the following command:

git merge branch_name_to_merge

answered Sep 15 '16 at 13:07

Bilal Ahmed Yaseen

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This can also happen if you aren't paying attention to the name of your branch (i.e. misspelled) :) – Matt Borja Sep 29 '16 at 20:47
This worked for me. When I am working in Atom with the Git tab and I switch branches with the drop down, sometimes I have to go to the command line and `checkout` the branch – nzaleski Mar 05 '18 at 16:11

score 7 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 03 '18 at 06:32

7

This error suggest that the branch from where you want to merge changes (i.e. in you case branch-name) is not present in you local, so you should checkout the branch and fetch the local changes. Checkout to your master branch and fetch, then follow the below steps:

git checkout branch-name
git pull
git checkout new-branch-name
git merge branch-name

answered Aug 03 '18 at 06:32

Amar Magar

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I will be picky and say I don't think the error message *suggests* anything like the above :-) – Brian Agnew Feb 25 '19 at 09:54

score 7 · Answer 10 · answered Jul 01 '20 at 23:57

7

You might also encounter this error if you are not using origin keyword and the branch isn't one of your own.

git checkout <to-branch> 
git merge origin/<from-branch>

answered Jul 01 '20 at 23:57

voidone

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score 3 · Answer 11 · answered Mar 03 '14 at 13:25

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I got this error when I did a git merge BRANCH_NAME "some commit message" - I'd forgotten to add the -m flag for the commit message, so it thought that the branch name included the comment.

answered Mar 03 '14 at 13:25

purelylogical

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score 3 · Answer 12 · edited May 19 '19 at 12:33

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In my opinion i had missed to map my local branch with remote repo. i did below and it worked fine.

git checkout master
git remote add origin https://github.com/yourrepo/project.git
git push -u origin master
git pull
git merge myBranch1FromMain

edited May 19 '19 at 12:33

slfan

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answered May 19 '19 at 12:13

Vinay Sharma

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score 2 · Answer 13 · answered Sep 24 '14 at 10:10

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If the string containing the reference is produced by another Git command (or any other shell command for that matter), make sure that it doesn't contain a return carriage at the end. You will have to strip it before passing the string to "git merge".

Note that it's pretty obvious when this happens, because the error message in on 2 lines:

merge: 26d8e04b29925ea5b59cb50501ab5a14dd35f0f9
 - not something we can merge

answered Sep 24 '14 at 10:10

ocroquette

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Please provide a comment when you downvoted an answer. Maybe it was not the issue the original poster had, but it's a possible cause of the error message (I had the problem myself). – ocroquette Jan 16 '15 at 09:04

score 2 · Answer 14 · answered Oct 12 '16 at 21:53

2

We got this error because we had a comma (,) in the branch name. We deleted the local branch, then re-checked it under a new name without the comma. We were able to merge it successfully.

answered Oct 12 '16 at 21:53

Doug

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Underscore also seems problematic. +1 – Anders Lindén Oct 01 '17 at 09:16
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I use underscores often in branch names @AndersLindén – nzaleski Mar 05 '18 at 16:10
and parenthesis was problematic too ...+1 – Pablo Ezequiel Inchausti Feb 14 '19 at 12:19

score 2 · Answer 15 · answered Sep 01 '20 at 08:49

2

In My case, the Problem was in Branch Name. My new branch name contains brackets, Once I renamed it and remove brackets, It's sorted.

answered Sep 01 '20 at 08:49

PoojaArora

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score 1 · Answer 16 · answered Jul 13 '15 at 14:37

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For posterity: Like AxeEffect said... if you have no typos check to see if you have ridiculous characters in your local branch name, like commas or apostrophes. Exactly that happened to me just now.

answered Jul 13 '15 at 14:37

Bennett Elder

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Or underscore. +1 – Anders Lindén Oct 01 '17 at 09:16

eaykin · Answer 17 · 2016-08-17T07:43:14.600

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I suggest checking if you are able to switch to the branch that you are trying to merge with.

I got this error even though the branch I wanted to merge with was in local repository and there were no spelling errors.

I ignored my local changes so that I could switch to the branch (Stash or commit can also be preferred). After this I switched back to the initial branch, and the merge was successful.

edited Aug 17 '16 at 07:43

answered Aug 16 '16 at 15:26

eaykin

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score 1 · Answer 18 · answered Jun 16 '20 at 08:34

The branch which you are tryin to merge may not be identified by you git at present so perform git branch and see if the branch which you want to merge exists are not, if not then perform git pull and now if you do git branch, the branch will be visible now, and now you perform git merge <BranchName>

score 1 · Answer 19 · answered Nov 25 '20 at 15:06

1

I had the same problem. I fixed it using the command below:

git checkout main
git fetch
git checkout branch_name
git fetch
git checkout main
git fetch
git merge branch_name

answered Nov 25 '20 at 15:06

Jaied

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score 1 · Answer 20 · answered Apr 27 '21 at 10:50

I had this issue today when I was merging another branch into mine after directly pulling from master, I had to checkout and pull the branch I was merging first, then I could merge this branch into mine successfully.

git checkout branch-to-merge
git pull
git checkout my-branch-name
git merge branch-to-merge

score 0 · Answer 21 · answered Nov 15 '17 at 09:14

0

For me the problem occured when I tried this:

git merge -s ours --no-commit --allow-unrelated-histories <remote name>/develop

So actually I should have written master instead of develop,because master was the branch name of Subtree,not my actual branch.

answered Nov 15 '17 at 09:14

Levon Petrosyan

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score 0 · Answer 22 · answered Mar 28 '19 at 17:03

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This may sounds weird, but remember to setup your git email and name:

git config --global user.email "MY@EMAIL.COM"
git config --global user.name "FIRST_NAME LAST_NAME"

answered Mar 28 '19 at 17:03

superarts.org

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score 0 · Answer 23 · answered Jun 10 '19 at 15:32

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For me, the problem was the 'double quotation marks' into merge message. So when I removed the double mark, all magically worked. I hope to help someone. (Sorry for my poor English)

answered Jun 10 '19 at 15:32

Aryelson Santos

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Vyas Bharghava · Answer 24 · 2020-04-15T14:16:03.620

I had a work tree with master and an another branch checked out in two different work folders.

PS C:\rhipheusADO\Build> git worktree list
C:/rhipheusADO/Build         7d32e6e [vyas-cr-core]
C:/rhipheusADO/Build-master  91d418c [master]

PS C:\rhipheusADO\Build> cd ..\Build-master\

PS C:\rhipheusADO\Build-master> git merge 7d32e6e #Or any other intermediary commits
Updating 91d418c..7d32e6e
Fast-forward
 Pipeline/CR-MultiPool/azure-pipelines-auc.yml | 5 +++--
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

PS C:\rhipheusADO\Build-master> git ls-remote
From https://myorg.visualstudio.com/HelloWorldApp/_git/Build
53060bac18f9d4e7c619e5170c436e6049b63f25        HEAD
7d32e6ec76d5a5271caebc2555d5a3a84b703954        refs/heads/vyas-cr-core 

PS C:\rhipheusADO\Build-master> git merge 7d32e6ec76d5a5271caebc2555d5a3a84b703954
Already up-to-date

PS C:\rhipheusADO\Build>  git push
Total 0 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
To https://myorg.visualstudio.com/HelloWorldApp/_git/Build
   91d418c..7d32e6e  master -> master

If you need to just merge the latest commit:

git merge origin/vyas-cr-core 
git push

And is same as what I've always done:

git checkout master # This is needed if you're not using worktrees
git pull origin vyas-cr-core
git push

score 0 · Answer 25 · answered Sep 26 '20 at 23:25

I had the same problem... I am a complete beginner In my case it happened cause I was trying to do: git merge random_branch/file.txt My problem was solved when I retired the file.txt and let just the branch name (lol) kkfdskfskdfs

git merge random_branch worked pretty well

score 0 · Answer 26 · edited Nov 25 '20 at 10:45

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git rebase the-branch-to-be-merged

I solved the problem using this git command, but rebase is only suited for some cases.

edited Nov 25 '20 at 10:45

Héctor Paúl Cervera-García

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answered Nov 25 '20 at 09:54

cat-walk

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score 0 · Answer 27 · answered Mar 31 '21 at 09:22

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I know it is late to answer but I also faced the same issue so I ran following commands

git checkout master

and then

git pull origin branch-name

It solved my problem

answered Mar 31 '21 at 09:22

Vikas Chauhan

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How to resolve git's "not something we can merge" error

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