git rebase fatal: Needed a single revision

I have a branch of a public repository and I am trying to update my branch with the current commits from the original repository:

$ git fetch <remote>
remote: Counting objects: 24, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (20/20), done.
remote: Total 20 (delta 12), reused 0 (delta 0)
Unpacking objects: 100% (20/20), done.
From git://github.com/path_to/repo
  9b70165..22127d0  master     -> $/master
$ git rebase <remote>
fatal: Needed a single revision
invalid upstream <remote>

The <remote> is in place of my remote name and is not actually my remote name. The documentation on this error seems to be a bit loose.

You need to provide the name of a branch (or other commit identifier), not the name of a remote to git rebase.

E.g.:

git rebase origin/master

not:

git rebase origin

Note, although origin should resolve to the the ref origin/HEAD when used as an argument where a commit reference is required, it seems that not every repository gains such a reference so it may not (and in your case doesn't) work. It pays to be explicit.

Check that you spelled the branch name correctly. I was rebasing a story branch (i.e. branch_name) and forgot the story part. (i.e. story/branch_name) and then git spit this error at me which didn't make much sense in this context.

I ran into this and realized I didn't fetch the upstream before trying to rebase. All I needed was to git fetch upstream

The issue is that you branched off a branch off of.... where you are trying to rebase to. You can't rebase to a branch that does not contain the commit your current branch was originally created on.

I got this when I first rebased a local branch X to a pushed one Y, then tried to rebase a branch (first created on X) to the pushed one Y.

Solved for me by rebasing to X.

I have no problem rebasing to remote branches (potentially not even checked out), provided my current branch stems from an ancestor of that branch.

The error occurs when your repository does not have the default branch set for the remote. You can use the git remote set-head command to modify the default branch, and thus be able to use the remote name instead of a specified branch in that remote.

To query the remote (in this case origin) for its HEAD (typically master), and set that as the default branch:

$ git remote set-head origin --auto

If you want to use a different default remote branch locally, you can specify that branch:

$ git remote set-head origin new-default

Once the default branch is set, you can use just the remote name in git rebase <remote> and any other commands instead of explicit <remote>/<branch>.

Behind the scenes, this command updates the reference in .git/refs/remotes/origin/HEAD.

$ cat .git/refs/remotes/origin/HEAD 
ref: refs/remotes/origin/master

See the git-remote man page for further details.

git submodule deinit --all -f worked for me.

$ git rebase upstream/master

fatal: Needed a single revision

invalid upstream usptream/master**

So I tried $ git rebase remotes/upstream/master and it works for me.