Technical difficulties 😕

TME 310 - Computational Physical Modeling

Lorne Arnold, PhD, PE

University of Washington Tacoma

Codespace and Git issues

  • Some students have been experiencing issues with Git and GitHub codespaces.
  • I get that this can be frustrating!
    • Troubleshooting codespaces isn’t how I want you to be spending your time
    • I have some suggestions of things to try if you run into problems

Problems with git push

Most of the problems I’ve seen with git push might look something like this:

 ! [rejected]        main -> main (fetch first)
error: failed to push some refs to 'https://github.com/UWT-TME-310/...

The most likely cause is that your codespace is “behind” your repo (aka origin).

Before attempted push:
    A---B---C  (origin/main)
         \
          D---E  (codespace/main)
  1. Try merging changes
  2. Ask Copilot
  3. Save locally and restart

Try merging changes

Use these commands:

git config pull.rebase false
git pull

You’ll be prompted for a commit message

What’s going on?

Before attempted push:
    A---B---C  (origin/main)
         \
          D---E  (codespace/main)

After git config pull.rebase false AND git pull:
    A---B-------C  (origin/main)
         \       \
          D---E---F (codespace/main)

Now you can git push

After git push:
    A---B-------C   F (origin/main)
         \       \ /
          D---E---F (codespace/main)

Ask Copilot

Even if you don’t try the previous method, you can ask Copilot to help you.

  • Turn “Agent” mode on
  • Ask: “help me with git push”
  • Allow copilot to run terminal commands
  • After several commands and checks, it will almost always get to a successful push

Save locally and restart

If you’re really tangled in a knot, make a copy of what you want to keep locally and start a new codespace from your repo.

  • Your notebook and everything else in your file explorer can be downloaded.
  • Or you can just copy and paste the contents if that’s easier for you.
  • After you’ve saved everything you want to keep, delete the problematic codespace and start a new one.

Problems with the codespace itself

You might also have problems with the codespace itself…

  • codespace running in recovery mode…
  • There is no Pip installer…
  • If you’re seeing this kind of issue, follow the “Save locally and restart” steps.