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'fatal: ref HEAD is not a symbolic ref' errors #163

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mpdude opened this issue Apr 23, 2020 · 4 comments · Fixed by #526
Closed

'fatal: ref HEAD is not a symbolic ref' errors #163

mpdude opened this issue Apr 23, 2020 · 4 comments · Fixed by #526

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@mpdude
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mpdude commented Apr 23, 2020

Since recently, this action here fails for me when running on pull requests. Unfortunately, I don't have a public repo right now that shows the issue, but here's an abridged log:

2020-04-23T17:09:27.7823345Z ##[section]Starting: Request a runner to run this job
2020-04-23T17:09:28.5456831Z Requesting a hosted runner in current repository's account/organization with labels: 'ubuntu-18.04', require runner match: True
2020-04-23T17:09:28.6447249Z Labels matched hosted runners has been found, waiting for one of them get assigned for this job.
2020-04-23T17:09:28.6990438Z ##[section]Finishing: Request a runner to run this job
2020-04-23T17:09:36.5752069Z Current runner version: '2.169.1'
2020-04-23T17:09:36.5776942Z ##[group]Operating System
2020-04-23T17:09:36.5778351Z Ubuntu
2020-04-23T17:09:36.5779270Z 18.04.4
2020-04-23T17:09:36.5780112Z LTS
2020-04-23T17:09:36.5780972Z ##[endgroup]
2020-04-23T17:09:36.5781847Z ##[group]Virtual Environment
2020-04-23T17:09:36.5782750Z Environment: ubuntu-18.04
2020-04-23T17:09:36.5783608Z Version: 20200406.2
2020-04-23T17:09:36.5784724Z Included Software: https://github.com/actions/virtual-environments/blob/ubuntu18/20200406.2/images/linux/Ubuntu1804-README.md
2020-04-23T17:09:36.5785818Z ##[endgroup]
2020-04-23T17:09:36.5787429Z Prepare workflow directory
2020-04-23T17:09:36.5981421Z Prepare all required actions
2020-04-23T17:09:36.5997277Z Download action repository 'actions/checkout@v2'
2020-04-23T17:09:37.5055896Z Download action repository 'peter-evans/create-pull-request@v2.2.0'
...
2020-04-23T17:09:46.7064186Z ##[group]Run actions/checkout@v2
2020-04-23T17:09:46.7064895Z with:
2020-04-23T17:09:46.7065552Z   repository: xxx
2020-04-23T17:09:46.7066267Z   token: ***
2020-04-23T17:09:46.7067258Z   ssh-strict: true
2020-04-23T17:09:46.7067785Z   persist-credentials: true
2020-04-23T17:09:46.7068317Z   clean: true
2020-04-23T17:09:46.7068842Z   fetch-depth: 1
2020-04-23T17:09:46.7069367Z   lfs: false
2020-04-23T17:09:46.7069894Z   submodules: false
2020-04-23T17:09:46.7070427Z ##[endgroup]
2020-04-23T17:09:47.1399028Z Syncing repository: xxx
2020-04-23T17:09:47.1480498Z ##[group]Getting Git version info
2020-04-23T17:09:47.1481767Z Working directory is '/home/runner/work/xxx/xxx'
2020-04-23T17:09:47.1524442Z [command]/usr/bin/git version
2020-04-23T17:09:47.1664800Z git version 2.26.0
2020-04-23T17:09:47.1692902Z ##[endgroup]
2020-04-23T17:09:47.1701772Z Deleting the contents of '/home/runner/work/xxx/xxx'
2020-04-23T17:09:47.1704754Z ##[group]Initializing the repository
2020-04-23T17:09:47.1708714Z [command]/usr/bin/git init /home/runner/work/xxx/xxx
2020-04-23T17:09:47.1804047Z Initialized empty Git repository in /home/runner/work/xxx/xxx/.git/
2020-04-23T17:09:47.1815909Z [command]/usr/bin/git remote add origin https://github.com/xxx/xxx
2020-04-23T17:09:47.1860816Z ##[endgroup]
2020-04-23T17:09:47.1861665Z ##[group]Disabling automatic garbage collection
2020-04-23T17:09:47.1867242Z [command]/usr/bin/git config --local gc.auto 0
2020-04-23T17:09:47.1898144Z ##[endgroup]
2020-04-23T17:09:47.1903941Z ##[group]Setting up auth
2020-04-23T17:09:47.1912123Z [command]/usr/bin/git config --local --name-only --get-regexp core\.sshCommand
2020-04-23T17:09:47.1945688Z [command]/usr/bin/git submodule foreach --recursive git config --local --name-only --get-regexp 'core\.sshCommand' && git config --local --unset-all 'core.sshCommand' || :
2020-04-23T17:09:47.2343142Z [command]/usr/bin/git config --local --name-only --get-regexp http\.https\:\/\/github\.com\/\.extraheader
2020-04-23T17:09:47.2412984Z [command]/usr/bin/git submodule foreach --recursive git config --local --name-only --get-regexp 'http\.https\:\/\/github\.com\/\.extraheader' && git config --local --unset-all 'http.https://github.com/.extraheader' || :
2020-04-23T17:09:47.2689438Z [command]/usr/bin/git config --local http.https://github.com/.extraheader AUTHORIZATION: basic ***
2020-04-23T17:09:47.2740998Z ##[endgroup]
2020-04-23T17:09:47.2741945Z ##[group]Fetching the repository
2020-04-23T17:09:47.2749971Z [command]/usr/bin/git -c protocol.version=2 fetch --no-tags --prune --progress --no-recurse-submodules --depth=1 origin +9e9c4726262fb6e432e840572fe5e872b7277876:refs/remotes/pull/112/merge
2020-04-23T17:09:47.6017498Z remote: Enumerating objects: 231, done.        
...   
2020-04-23T17:09:47.6330272Z remote: Compressing objects: 100% (205/205), done.        
...
2020-04-23T17:09:47.6657662Z remote: Total 231 (delta 36), reused 87 (delta 7), pack-reused 0        
...
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7117282Z From https://github.com/xxx/xxx
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7118266Z  * [new ref]         9e9c4726262fb6e432e840572fe5e872b7277876 -> pull/112/merge
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7151923Z ##[endgroup]
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7152818Z ##[group]Determining the checkout info
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7156578Z ##[endgroup]
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7157308Z ##[group]Checking out the ref
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7164529Z [command]/usr/bin/git checkout --progress --force refs/remotes/pull/112/merge
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7362273Z Note: switching to 'refs/remotes/pull/112/merge'.
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7363209Z 
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7364362Z You are in 'detached HEAD' state. You can look around, make experimental
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7365096Z changes and commit them, and you can discard any commits you make in this
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7365778Z state without impacting any branches by switching back to a branch.
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7366157Z 
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7366821Z If you want to create a new branch to retain commits you create, you may
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7367685Z do so (now or later) by using -c with the switch command. Example:
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7368057Z 
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7368717Z   git switch -c <new-branch-name>
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7369007Z 
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7369523Z Or undo this operation with:
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7369795Z 
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7370423Z   git switch -
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7370702Z 
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7371252Z Turn off this advice by setting config variable advice.detachedHead to false
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7371671Z 
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7372336Z HEAD is now at 9e9c472 Merge fe9a2a8d7a4900aa0b5b8818146a0f9e6c6d6435 into 51e51976e0aefa42064f9777002a94ae9fd48f8f
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7374627Z ##[endgroup]
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7375604Z [command]/usr/bin/git log -1
2020-04-23T17:09:47.7405277Z commit 9e9c4726262fb6e432e840572fe5e872b7277876
...
2020-04-23T17:09:52.1943490Z ##[group]Run peter-evans/create-pull-request@v2.2.0
2020-04-23T17:09:52.1944116Z with:
2020-04-23T17:09:52.1945374Z   token: ***
2020-04-23T17:09:52.1945916Z   title: xxx
2020-04-23T17:09:52.1946538Z   branch: xxx/refs/pull/112/merge
2020-04-23T17:09:52.1948425Z   body: Please merge these changes into the refs/pull/112/merge branch
2020-04-23T17:09:52.1949230Z   commit-message: xxx
2020-04-23T17:09:52.1949939Z ##[endgroup]
2020-04-23T17:09:52.2571784Z [command]/opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.8.2/x64/bin/pip install --requirement /home/runner/work/_actions/peter-evans/create-pull-request/v2.2.0/dist/src/requirements.txt --no-index --find-links=/home/runner/work/_actions/peter-evans/create-pull-request/v2.2.0/dist/vendor
2020-04-23T17:09:52.8306694Z Looking in links: /home/runner/work/_actions/peter-evans/create-pull-request/v2.2.0/dist/vendor
2020-04-23T17:09:52.8391757Z Processing /home/runner/work/_actions/peter-evans/create-pull-request/v2.2.0/dist/vendor/GitPython-3.0.5.tar.gz
2020-04-23T17:09:53.0998662Z Processing /home/runner/work/_actions/peter-evans/create-pull-request/v2.2.0/dist/vendor/PyGithub-1.45.tar.gz
2020-04-23T17:09:53.3511870Z Processing /home/runner/work/_actions/peter-evans/create-pull-request/v2.2.0/dist/vendor/gitdb2-2.0.6.tar.gz
2020-04-23T17:09:53.5630600Z Processing /home/runner/work/_actions/peter-evans/create-pull-request/v2.2.0/dist/vendor/Deprecated-1.2.7.tar.gz
2020-04-23T17:09:53.8512874Z Processing /home/runner/work/_actions/peter-evans/create-pull-request/v2.2.0/dist/vendor/PyJWT-1.7.1.tar.gz
2020-04-23T17:09:54.0831673Z Processing /home/runner/work/_actions/peter-evans/create-pull-request/v2.2.0/dist/vendor/requests-2.22.0.tar.gz
2020-04-23T17:09:54.3654746Z Processing /home/runner/work/_actions/peter-evans/create-pull-request/v2.2.0/dist/vendor/six-1.14.0.tar.gz
2020-04-23T17:09:54.5719792Z Processing /home/runner/work/_actions/peter-evans/create-pull-request/v2.2.0/dist/vendor/smmap2-2.0.5.tar.gz
2020-04-23T17:09:54.7827169Z Processing /home/runner/work/_actions/peter-evans/create-pull-request/v2.2.0/dist/vendor/wrapt-1.11.2.tar.gz
2020-04-23T17:09:54.9964586Z Processing /home/runner/work/_actions/peter-evans/create-pull-request/v2.2.0/dist/vendor/chardet-3.0.4.tar.gz
2020-04-23T17:09:55.3726962Z Processing /home/runner/work/_actions/peter-evans/create-pull-request/v2.2.0/dist/vendor/idna-2.8.tar.gz
2020-04-23T17:09:55.5787565Z Processing /home/runner/work/_actions/peter-evans/create-pull-request/v2.2.0/dist/vendor/urllib3-1.25.8.tar.gz
2020-04-23T17:09:55.8386183Z Processing /home/runner/work/_actions/peter-evans/create-pull-request/v2.2.0/dist/vendor/certifi-2019.11.28.tar.gz
2020-04-23T17:09:56.0590651Z Installing collected packages: smmap2, gitdb2, GitPython, wrapt, deprecated, pyjwt, chardet, idna, urllib3, certifi, requests, six, PyGithub
2020-04-23T17:09:56.0598760Z     Running setup.py install for smmap2: started
2020-04-23T17:09:56.2970406Z     Running setup.py install for smmap2: finished with status 'done'
2020-04-23T17:09:56.3000143Z     Running setup.py install for gitdb2: started
2020-04-23T17:09:56.5553330Z     Running setup.py install for gitdb2: finished with status 'done'
2020-04-23T17:09:56.5582759Z     Running setup.py install for GitPython: started
2020-04-23T17:09:56.9240652Z     Running setup.py install for GitPython: finished with status 'done'
2020-04-23T17:09:56.9294468Z     Running setup.py install for wrapt: started
2020-04-23T17:09:58.0531960Z     Running setup.py install for wrapt: finished with status 'done'
2020-04-23T17:09:58.0555469Z     Running setup.py install for deprecated: started
2020-04-23T17:09:58.3015651Z     Running setup.py install for deprecated: finished with status 'done'
2020-04-23T17:09:58.3042480Z     Running setup.py install for pyjwt: started
2020-04-23T17:09:58.5453811Z     Running setup.py install for pyjwt: finished with status 'done'
2020-04-23T17:09:58.5470331Z     Running setup.py install for chardet: started
2020-04-23T17:09:58.9414728Z     Running setup.py install for chardet: finished with status 'done'
2020-04-23T17:09:58.9464107Z     Running setup.py install for idna: started
2020-04-23T17:09:59.2594002Z     Running setup.py install for idna: finished with status 'done'
2020-04-23T17:09:59.2615865Z     Running setup.py install for urllib3: started
2020-04-23T17:09:59.5686483Z     Running setup.py install for urllib3: finished with status 'done'
2020-04-23T17:09:59.5728440Z     Running setup.py install for certifi: started
2020-04-23T17:09:59.7938223Z     Running setup.py install for certifi: finished with status 'done'
2020-04-23T17:09:59.7957545Z     Running setup.py install for requests: started
2020-04-23T17:10:00.0969154Z     Running setup.py install for requests: finished with status 'done'
2020-04-23T17:10:00.1007396Z     Running setup.py install for six: started
2020-04-23T17:10:00.3379142Z     Running setup.py install for six: finished with status 'done'
2020-04-23T17:10:00.3397582Z     Running setup.py install for PyGithub: started
2020-04-23T17:10:00.7214334Z     Running setup.py install for PyGithub: finished with status 'done'
2020-04-23T17:10:00.7537743Z Successfully installed GitPython-3.0.5 PyGithub-1.45 certifi-2019.11.28 chardet-3.0.4 deprecated-1.2.7 gitdb2-2.0.6 idna-2.8 pyjwt-1.7.1 requests-2.22.0 six-1.14.0 smmap2-2.0.5 urllib3-1.25.8 wrapt-1.11.2
2020-04-23T17:10:00.8228041Z [command]/opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.8.2/x64/bin/python /home/runner/work/_actions/peter-evans/create-pull-request/v2.2.0/dist/src/create_pull_request.py
2020-04-23T17:10:01.0692548Z   stderr: 'fatal: ref HEAD is not a symbolic ref'
2020-04-23T17:10:01.0696093Z ##[error]The checked out ref is not a valid base for a pull request. Unable to continue. Exiting.
2020-04-23T17:10:01.0979351Z ##[error]The process '/opt/hostedtoolcache/Python/3.8.2/x64/bin/python' failed with exit code 1

I am suspecting this might have something to do with changes in the actions/checkout@v2 action made at the end of last year, see here:

actions/checkout#23

In particular, this comment says

V2 fetches a specific SHA and retries with a few delays between before failing. Whereas V1 fetched the merge PR ref.

I don't know enough about git internals to fully understand this, but it sounds as if the actions/checkout action now always leaves us in detached head state on a SHA instead of being checked out on something that feels like a branch.

Not sure if here is the right place to fix this (or if it can be fixed), but I guess actions/checkout is such a central thing that they knew what and why they were doing it that way.
@peter-evans
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Hi @mpdude

actions/checkout has always checked out a merge commit during pull request events. This is not a branch, it's a commit that is a merge of the pull request branch and the base. This is so CI can test the merge before it happens. If you are trying to create a pull request to merge into your existing pull request branch then you don't want to do that on the merge commit, instead you should checkout the head_ref. See the documentation here.

@mpdude
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mpdude commented Apr 24, 2020

That seems to fix it!

Thanks @peter-evans and sorry for not reading the documentation properly.

@mpdude mpdude closed this as completed Apr 24, 2020
@mpdude mpdude mentioned this issue Jun 18, 2020
Closed
@ldelossa
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would the same be true for a publish event?

name: Release Actions

on:
release:
types: [published]

Looks like I'm running into this

@peter-evans
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@ldelossa Replied to your issue here: #522 (comment)

@peter-evans peter-evans mentioned this issue Aug 29, 2020
Merged
@vitorbal vitorbal mentioned this issue Nov 16, 2022
Closed
tkoskela added a commit to OrderN/CONQUEST-release that referenced this issue May 25, 2023
@tkoskela
Merge pull request #189 from OrderN/tk/ci-skeleton
8d57420 
Tk/ci skeleton

There is an error from `git symbolic-ref HEAD` during the build
```
sed "s/BBB/"`git symbolic-ref HEAD | cut -b 12-`"/" verstr.f90 | sed "s/RRR/"`git describe --tags`"/" >> datestamp.f90
10
fatal: ref HEAD is not a symbolic ref
```
This is because the action runs on a merge commit,  not a branch, as explained in [this issue](peter-evans/create-pull-request#163). I assume parsing the branch name fails, but since this only runs in the GHA runner, I don't think we should mind too much.
@tkoskela tkoskela mentioned this issue May 25, 2023
Merged
@tschaffter tschaffter mentioned this issue Mar 1, 2024
Closed
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feat: support checkout on a commit in addition to a ref peter-evans/create-pull-request
3 participants
@mpdude @ldelossa @peter-evans