'git pull' fails with 'not uptodate' message despite 'git reset --hard'

I am attempting to update my kernel tree but getting a 'not uptodate' error:

$ git fetch origin
[...]
$ git pull origin tags/v2.6.31-rc4
From git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6
 * tag               v2.6.31-rc4 -> FETCH_HEAD
Updating 6847e15..4be3bd7
error: Entry 'CREDITS' not uptodate. Cannot merge.

'git diff' shows no changes, and neither 'git reset --hard' nor 'git checkout -f HEAD' fix the issue. Simple 'git pull' doesn't work either:

$ git diff CREDITS
$ git reset --hard
Checking out files: 100% (27891/27891), done.
HEAD is now at 6847e15 Linux 2.6.31-rc3
$ git pull origin tags/v2.6.31-rc4
From git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6
 * tag               v2.6.31-rc4 -> FETCH_HEAD
Updating 6847e15..4be3bd7
error: Entry 'CREDITS' not uptodate. Cannot merge.
$ git checkout -f HEAD
Checking out files: 100% (29096/29096), done.
Your branch is behind 'origin/master' by 484 commits, and can be fast-forwarded.
$ git pull origin tags/v2.6.31-rc4
From git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6
 * tag               v2.6.31-rc4 -> FETCH_HEAD
Updating 6847e15..4be3bd7
error: Entry 'CREDITS' not uptodate. Cannot merge.
$ git pull
Updating 6847e15..7d3e91b
error: Entry 'CREDITS' not uptodate. Cannot merge.

I use quilt with this tree but no quilt patches are currently applied and it should be clean. It hasn't even been built (I rsync to another machine for that.)

According to the documentation, I believe what I'm doing should work - even if my tree was unclean, 'git checkout -f HEAD' or 'git reset --hard' would fix it. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,
Jody

[...]

I've run into this problem when I rsync a tree from one system to another. The inodes will be different, so merge will think files in the work tree have changed, but then diff (of course) won't see anything because it looks at the actual file contents, which are identical.

Usually a 'git status' will fix it. In any case, if it doesn't, please send the output of 'git status' :)

I believe this cache out-of-dateness issue was fixed in a recent version of git.

Have fun,

Avery

Interesting. Now that I think about it, I do rsync this tree between my desktop and laptop. This would explain why I only just started seeing this problem - I probably originally pulled the tree to my desktop, but this week I'm working on my laptop.

This is again a bit strange:

$ git status
# On branch master
# Your branch is behind 'origin/master' by 484 commits, and can be fast-forwarded.
#
nothing to commit (working directory clean)
$ git status CREDITS > /tmp/git_status.txt
$ wc -l /tmp/git_status.txt
26063 /tmp/git_status.txt
$ head /tmp/git_status.txt 
# On branch master
# Your branch is behind 'origin/master' by 484 commits, and can be fast-forwarded.
#
# Changed but not updated:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
#   (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
#
#       modified:   .gitignore
#       modified:   .mailmap
#       modified:   COPYING

There appears to be an entry for every file in my tree minus things that are in .gitignore. git_status.txt is available at:

http://www.modernduck.com/files/git_status.txt

I'll try that in the next few days and report back.

Thanks,
Jody

Git 1.6.4 fixes the issue, whatever it was.

Thanks!
Jody

Okay, that's extra strange: when I've had this problem, 'git status' has fixed it right away; it just goes away after that. It might be that recent changes to git have added an "optimization" that makes this not happen for some reason.

You can always try the thermonuclear option:

mv .git/index .git/index.bak
git reset HEAD # note, don't use --hard here
git status # should show only files you have *really* changed

Of course, if this fixes it than it's *definitely* a bug somewhere.

Good luck.

Avery

That still doesn't fix the problem. I guess the index is not to blame.

$ mv .git/index .git/index.bak
$ git reset HEAD
$ git status
# On branch master
# Your branch is behind 'origin/master' by 484 commits, and can be fast-forwarded.
#
nothing to commit (working directory clean)
$ git pull origin tags/v2.6.31-rc4
From git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6
 * tag               v2.6.31-rc4 -> FETCH_HEAD
Updating 6847e15..4be3bd7
error: Entry 'CREDITS' not uptodate. Cannot merge.

Incidentally:

$ diff .git/index.bak .git/index
Binary files .git/index.bak and .git/index differ

I don't know what .git/index contains so I don't know if that's surprising or not.

Cheers,
Jody