Summary

The Git push or delete branch is failing with the below error as there is an ongoing operation already taking place in the repository or the packed-refs.lock file was somehow left behind by the Bitbucket process without being cleaned up.

remote: error: Unable to create '<BITBUCKET_HOME>shared/data/repositories/12/./packed-refs.lock': File exists.
remote: Another git process seems to be running in this repository, e.g.
remote: an editor opened by 'git commit'. Please make sure all processes
remote: are terminated then try again. If it still fails, a git process
remote: may have crashed in this repository earlier:
remote: remove the file manually to continue.
To ssh://stash.test.com/scm/test/test.git
! [remote rejected] fix/test-refresh-fix (failed to update ref)
error: failed to push some refs to 'ssh://stash.test.com/scm/test/test.git'

Environment

Bitbucket Data Center Version 7.x.

Diagnosis

Check if the packed-refs.lock is being used by some processes by running the following command on all the Bitbucket Nodes

sudo lsof | grep "packed-refs.lock"

If the above command gives an output that matches the path "<BITBUCKET_HOME>shared/data/repositories/12/./packed-refs.lock" then it confirms that some process is still ongoing in that repository.

However, if it doesn't return anything, it indicates that the file is stale and can be safely removed.

Cause

The issue stems from the stale packed-refs.lock file, which is left behind by the Bitbucket backend Git process. This might occur if Bitbucket Service was forcefully closed during active operations, or if the shared filesystem was unmounted unexpectedly while Bitbucket was running, or if the Bitbucket server was forcefully rebooted while a Bitbucket process was in progress.

Solution

 Before making any changes, please back up the repository <BITBUCKET_HOME>shared/data/repositories/<repo_id>/ on the Bitbucket server's file system itself so that you can restore it in case anything goes wrong

After taking the backup, move the file "<BITBUCKET_HOME>shared/data/repositories/12/./packed-refs.lock" out of the "<BITBUCKET_HOME>shared/data/repositories/12/" repository directory and then try to push again.