mysterious vanishing branches in git

Question

Here are some git actions I performed. As you can see, I made a new branch, modified my files, and then committed the changes. After changing back to another branch, hoping to merge, the branch I was just working on disappeared.

Does anyone know how I can recover the files from fixed_merge_branch? I'm freaking out!

1.9.2@whisperme$ git branch fixed_merge_conflict
1.9.2@whisperme$ git checkout fixed_merge_conflict
M   ArtworkViewController.h
M   ArtworkViewController.m
M   ArtworkViewController.xib
M   Classes/DFRAppDelegate.h
M   Classes/DFRAppDelegate.m
M   Classes/WorkGalleryViewController.m
M   Classes/WorkGalleryViewController.xib
M   DFR.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj
M   DFRViewController.xib
M   Data.h
M   Data.m
M   MainWindow.xib
M   cn.lproj/Localizable.strings
M   en.lproj/Localizable.strings
A   fr.lproj/Localizable.strings
Switched to branch 'fixed_merge_conflict'
1.9.2@whisperme$ git add .
1.9.2@whisperme$ cd Classes/
1.9.2@whisperme$ git add .
1.9.2@whisperme$ cd ..
1.9.2@whisperme$ git add -u
1.9.2@whisperme$ git status
# Not currently on any branch.
# Changes to be committed:
#   (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
#
#   modified:   ArtworkViewController.h
#   modified:   ArtworkViewController.m
#   modified:   ArtworkViewController.xib
#   modified:   Classes/DFRAppDelegate.h
#   modified:   Classes/DFRAppDelegate.m
#   modified:   Classes/WorkGalleryViewController.m
#   modified:   DFR.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj
#   modified:   Data.h
#   modified:   Data.m
#   modified:   MainWindow.xib
#   modified:   cn.lproj/Localizable.strings
#   modified:   en.lproj/Localizable.strings
#
# Untracked files:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
#
#   fr.lproj/
1.9.2@whisperme$ git commit -m "re-did changes lost by merge screw up"
[detached HEAD 858491f] re-did changes lost by merge screw up
 12 files changed, 110 insertions(+), 50 deletions(-)
1.9.2@whisperme$ git checkout develop
Previous HEAD position was 858491f... re-did changes lost by merge screw up
Switched to branch 'develop'
1.9.2@whisperme$ git branch
  artwork_model
  artwork_model_localisation
  artwork_screen
* develop
  logger
  master
  start_artwork_model
1.9.2@whisperme$ git merge fixed_merge_conflict
fatal: 'fixed_merge_conflict' does not point to a commit
1.9.2@whisperme$ git checkout fixed_merge_conflict
error: pathspec 'fixed_merge_conflict' did not match any file(s) known to git.
1.9.2@whisperme$ git checkout fixed_merge_conflict
error: pathspec 'fixed_merge_conflict' did not match any file(s) known to git.
1.9.2@whisperme$ git branch
  artwork_model
  artwork_model_localisation
  artwork_screen
* develop
  logger
  master
  start_artwork_model
1.9.2@whisperme$ git checkout
1.9.2@whisperme$ git branch
  artwork_model
  artwork_model_localisation
  artwork_screen
* develop
  logger
  master
  start_artwork_model
1.9.2@whisperme$ pwd
/Users/tristan/Documents/DFR
1.9.2@whisperme$ 

Thanks a bunch!

Answer 1

Well I don't exactly see why the branch 'disappeared' but don't worry, your files didn't.

You can find them by many means:

• You can use the message printed by the git checkout when you left your anonymous branch: "Previous HEAD position was 858491f".
• You can use git reflog and find the commit of your files.

Then you can run this to recreate the branch:

git checkout 858491f -b fixed_merge_conflict

and then you can do your merge:

git checkout develop
git merge fixed_merge_conflict

Or you can do the merge in one step if you don't care about the branch:

git merge 858491f

Answer 2

for some reason, you're getting a detach head situation. I'm not entirely sure how that is caused in a regular git repo, but i've encountered it using git svn (and came up with my own solution here). It might be that the aren't --tracking the upstream repo when you create a new branch. Usually when you get a detached head, when you do a git branch, you will see (asterisk) (no branch) (don't know how to do a literal asterisk with markdown)