Git filter-branch says working tree is dirty when it is not
command-line, git
Solution
This is mostly a guess, but the error may be caused by a bug that was fixed in git v1.7.7.1 (which was released after your original post). From the commit message:
Filter-branch already requires that we have a clean work tree before starting. However, it failed to refresh the index before checking, which means it could be wrong in the case of stat-dirtiness.
Problem
I'm trying to rewrite my history in my git repository because I need to remove a file that contains restricted information. This is what happens: ``` $ git filter-branch --index-filter 'git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch FILE' master Cannot rewrite branch(es) with a dirty working directory. ``` So I think "that's weird, I'm pretty sure I don't have uncommitted changes", and I run: ``` $ git status -u # On branch master nothing to commit (use -u to show untracked files) ``` What is going on here? Does anyone have an idea for what could be happening? There are submodules in this repository. Submodule Staging Info I have 18 submodules (all Vim plugins), and here are their statuses. Thought this might be useful info. ``` $ for i in $(ls); do cd $i; git status -u; cd ..; done; # Not currently on any branch. nothing to commit (working directory clean) # Not currently on any branch. nothing to commit (working directory clean) # Not currently on any branch. nothing to commit (working directory clean) # Not currently on any branch. nothing to commit (working directory clean) # Not currently on any branch. nothing to commit (working directory clean) # Not currently on any branch. nothing to commit (working directory clean) # Not currently on any branch. nothing to commit (working directory clean) # Not currently on any branch. nothing to commit (working directory clean) # Not currently on any branch. nothing to commit (working directory clean) # Not currently on any branch. nothing to commit (working directory clean) # Not currently on any branch. nothing to commit (working directory clean) # On branch master nothing to commit (working directory clean) # Not currently on any branch. nothing to commit (working directory clean) # Not currently on any branch. nothing to commit (working directory clean) # Not currently on any branch. nothing to commit (working directory clean) # Not currently on any branch. nothing to commit (working directory clean) # Not currently on any branch. nothing to commit (working directory clean) # Not currently on any branch. nothing to commit (working directory clean) ``` Other info ``` $ git diff-files --ignore-submodules --quiet $ echo $? 1 $ git diff-index --cached --quiet HEAD -- $ echo $? 0 ```