Repeated unlink of pack file failed during rebase

[M393]

Existing issues matching what you're seeing

• I was not able to find an open or closed issue matching what I'm seeing

Git for Windows version

git version 2.55.0.windows.2
cpu: x86_64
built from commit: c8dff95af823bd04181a583c03f3fbb954551c30
sizeof-long: 4
sizeof-size_t: 8
shell-path: D:/git-sdk-64-build-installers/usr/bin/sh
rust: disabled
feature: fsmonitor--daemon
gettext: enabled
libcurl: 8.21.0
OpenSSL: OpenSSL 3.5.7 9 Jun 2026
zlib: 1.3.2
SHA-1: SHA1_DC
SHA-256: SHA256_BLK
default-ref-format: files
default-hash: sha1

Windows version

Windows 10

Windows CPU architecture

x86_64 (64-bit)

Additional Windows version information

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19045.6456]

Options set during installation

Editor Option: VIM
Custom Editor Path:
Default Branch Option:
Path Option: Cmd
SSH Option: OpenSSH
Tortoise Option: false
CURL Option: OpenSSL
CRLF Option: CRLFCommitAsIs
Bash Terminal Option: MinTTY
Git Pull Behavior Option: FFOnly
Use Credential Manager: Enabled
Performance Tweaks FSCache: Enabled
Enable Symlinks: Enabled
Enable FSMonitor: Disabled

Other interesting things

#6210 is very similar and was fixed for git fetch in git 2.55.0, but it seems git rebase is still affected.

Terminal/shell

Bash

Commands that trigger the issue

git rebase -i origin/master
# pick -> edit one of the commits of a bunch of commits
# make changes to a file
git add -u
git rebase --continue

Enumerating objects: 3285, done.
Counting objects: 100% (3285/3285), done.
Delta compression using up to 8 threads
Compressing objects: 100% (1395/1395), done.
Writing objects: 100% (3285/3285), done.
Total 3285 (delta 2048), reused 3093 (delta 1882), pack-reused 0 (from 0)
Unlink of file '.git/objects/pack/pack-baec3088deb02962d9dbf09eebb55497b255cdc1.idx' failed.
Should I try again? (y/n) y
Unlink of file '.git/objects/pack/pack-baec3088deb02962d9dbf09eebb55497b255cdc1.idx' failed.
Should I try again? (y/n) y
Unlink of file '.git/objects/pack/pack-baec3088deb02962d9dbf09eebb55497b255cdc1.idx' failed.
Should I try again? (y/n) y
Unlink of file '.git/objects/pack/pack-baec3088deb02962d9dbf09eebb55497b255cdc1.idx' failed.
Should I try again? (y/n) y
Unlink of file '.git/objects/pack/pack-baec3088deb02962d9dbf09eebb55497b255cdc1.idx' failed.
Should I try again? (y/n) y
Unlink of file '.git/objects/pack/pack-baec3088deb02962d9dbf09eebb55497b255cdc1.idx' failed.
Should I try again? (y/n) y
Unlink of file '.git/objects/pack/pack-baec3088deb02962d9dbf09eebb55497b255cdc1.idx' failed.
Should I try again? (y/n) y
Unlink of file '.git/objects/pack/pack-baec3088deb02962d9dbf09eebb55497b255cdc1.idx' failed.
Should I try again? (y/n) y
Unlink of file '.git/objects/pack/pack-baec3088deb02962d9dbf09eebb55497b255cdc1.idx' failed.
Should I try again? (y/n) y
Unlink of file '.git/objects/pack/pack-baec3088deb02962d9dbf09eebb55497b255cdc1.idx' failed.
Should I try again? (y/n) y
Unlink of file '.git/objects/pack/pack-baec3088deb02962d9dbf09eebb55497b255cdc1.idx' failed.
Should I try again? (y/n) y
Unlink of file '.git/objects/pack/pack-baec3088deb02962d9dbf09eebb55497b255cdc1.idx' failed.
Should I try again? (y/n) y
Unlink of file '.git/objects/pack/pack-baec3088deb02962d9dbf09eebb55497b255cdc1.idx' failed.
Should I try again? (y/n) yn
Sorry, I did not understand your answer. Please type 'y' or 'n'
Unlink of file '.git/objects/pack/pack-baec3088deb02962d9dbf09eebb55497b255cdc1.idx' failed.
Should I try again? (y/n) n
Unlink of file '.git/objects/pack/pack-baec3088deb02962d9dbf09eebb55497b255cdc1.pack' failed.
Should I try again? (y/n) n
Unlink of file '.git/objects/pack/pack-aec0ee70bed7900a658fa8da467e00baebf834e3.idx' failed.
Should I try again? (y/n) n
Unlink of file '.git/objects/pack/pack-aec0ee70bed7900a658fa8da467e00baebf834e3.pack' failed.
Should I try again? (y/n) n
[detached HEAD 24e7d8c2b] Fix commit message
Date: Mon Jun 29 15:37:57 2026 +0200
2 files changed, 9 insertions(+)
Successfully rebased and updated refs/heads/work.

Expected behaviour

No failure to unlink when compressing during rebase

Actual behaviour

Unlinking the pack file never succeeded

Repository

No response

[dscho]

If it is really similar to #6210, did you try with git -c maintenance.strategy=gc rebase -i and it succeeded?

[M393]

After aborting the rebase, running git rebase --continue succeeded but without compressing anything so I'm not sure how to reproduce it.
Is there a config that will reliably make git run maintanance with a command.

[as-marcb]

Same unlink issue observed during manual git gc invocation on larg(er) repo.
After some time, deletion becomes possible (answering y succeeds).
Seems to only affect "some" pack files and is not reliably reproducible (maybe some Antivirus or indexing).

[dscho]

@as-marcb #6210 talks about geometric maintenance. Do you know which strategy is active in your repository? If it is not geometric (or if you encounter the same problem when forcing a non-geometric gc), then the Antivirus theory sounds quite plausible a culprit to me.