"git rebase origin" vs."git rebase origin/master"

I don't get the difference between git rebase origin and git rebase origin/master. In my case I cloned a git repository twice. In the first clone I have to use git rebase origin and in the other clone I must use git rebase origin/master.

An example: http://paste.dennis-boldt.de/2011/05/11/git-rebase

git rebase origin means "rebase from the tracking branch of origin", while git rebase origin/master means "rebase from the branch master of origin"

You must have a tracking branch in ~/Desktop/test, which means that git rebase origin knows which branch of origin to rebase with. If no tracking branch exists (in the case of ~/Desktop/fallstudie), git doesn't know which branch of origin it must take, and fails.

To fix this, you can make the branch track origin/master with:

git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/master 

Or, if master isn't the currently checked-out branch:

git branch --set-upstream-to=origin/master master

Here's a better option:

git remote set-head -a origin

From the documentation:

> With -a, the remote is queried to determine its HEAD, then $GIT_DIR/remotes//HEAD is set to the same branch. e.g., if the remote HEAD is pointed at next, "git remote set-head origin -a" will set $GIT_DIR/refs/remotes/origin/HEAD to refs/remotes/origin/next. This will only work if refs/remotes/origin/next already exists; if not it must be fetched first.

This has actually been around quite a while (since v1.6.3); not sure how I missed it!

You can make a new file under [.git\refs\remotes\origin] with name "HEAD" and put content "ref: refs/remotes/origin/master" to it. This should solve your problem.

It seems that clone from an empty repos will lead to this. Maybe the empty repos do not have HEAD because no commit object exist.

You can use the > git log --remotes --branches --oneline --decorate

to see the difference between each repository, while the "problem" one do not have "origin/HEAD"

Edit: Give a way using command line
You can also use git command line to do this, they have the same result > git symbolic-ref refs/remotes/origin/HEAD refs/remotes/origin/master