Remote repository contains conflicting changes, yet I can git push no problem

[jayjanssen]

I keep getting this error:

but when I git push directly, it works no problem. I'm not sure if there's a debug log somewhere I can check. I do see output in the Git "Output" for Vscode when I push the Force Push button:

2025-07-01 13:02:00.908 [info] > git for-each-ref --sort -committerdate --format %(refname)%00%(objectname)%00%(*objectname) [12ms]
2025-07-01 13:02:00.921 [info] > git for-each-ref --sort -committerdate --format %(refname)%00%(objectname)%00%(*objectname) [12ms]

but it doesn't really tell me anything.

The annoying part: restarting vscode fixes it (usually)

[M-Kepler]

+1

[bgolinvaux]

Same here!

[bgolinvaux]

Hello

I've noticed that the extension displays this "conflicting changes" message if the push command throws an exception, regardless of the actual error that causes the exception to be thrown (see below).

But I suspect there can be other causes of error for a push, some of them transient.

For instance, on some repos on my system, when a pull/push/fetch is executed, sometimes the first one (after a relatively long period without contacting the remote) generates an error while a 2nd attempt right away succeeds.

I suspect that this is due to the OAuth token refresh being done asynchronously on-demand by git-manager-core. It does not happen in GitHub but it happens on my self-hosted Gitea instance.

There could be other cases where GitDoc encounters a glitch on push without necessarily having conflicting changes. It's annoying to have this sticky dialog box appearing in that case because the only option is to "hide notifications from GitDoc" , which is not necessarily what we want to do.

What if we could add an option that, when enable, would attempt a couple of retries when the push fails and only displays the actual error that the push reported when done (not this generic "conflict" message) ?

@M-Kepler and @jayjanssen, maybe you're also experience something similar ?

Also, this is a different topic, I think that prominently displaying a "Force push" button is dangerous. I think that "Pull with rebase" and perhaps "Force with lease" should be available, while a brutal "Force" should probably be hidden being a config flag, because Git beginners could lose data thinking that it's somehow safe if the extension suggests it.

Despite these concerns, Gitdoc is very very useful and allows my to sync my zillion markdown notes between several machines. I love it. THANKS for making it and sharing it.

  try {
    if (config.autoPull === "onPush") {
      await pullRepository(repository);
    }

    const pushArgs: any[] = [REMOTE_NAME, repository.state.HEAD?.name, false];

    if (forcePush) {
      pushArgs.push(ForcePushMode.Force);
    } else if (config.pushMode !== "push") {
      const pushMode =
        config.pushMode === "forcePush"
          ? ForcePushMode.Force
          : ForcePushMode.ForceWithLease;

      pushArgs.push(pushMode);
    }

    await repository.push(...pushArgs);

    store.isPushing = false;
  } catch {
    store.isPushing = false;

    if (
      await vscode.window.showWarningMessage(
        "Remote repository contains conflicting changes.",
        "Force Push"
      )
    ) {
      await pushRepository(repository, true);
    }
  }