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This article outlines how to resolve the Another git process seems to be running in this repository error on Git. The message itself is self-explanatory.

It just reminds you that there is a different process running in Git when you try to run the command. Git allows us to run one command at a time.

If you're not sure how to fix this error, stick around. We have a lot to unpack.

Fix Another git process seems to be running in this repository error

As mentioned before, the Git version control system can only run one command at a time. This helps protect the integrity of our repository.

For a simpler context, we will simulate a scenario where Git provides us with another git process that appears to be running in this repository. Consider the following scenario.

We have two processes running simultaneously in our Git repository. One process is pulling changes while the other is committing them.

This situation confuses Git because it doesn't know whether to commit the changes first or pull them first.

You may get the same error if a previous command you were trying to run crashed or if you were trying to run two Git commands at the same time.

Example scenario

We will use the integrated Git text editor to make changes to the README.md file in the repository and commit the changes while the editor is open.

Ideally this should give us the error. Let's get started.

We will update our README.md file and commit the changes.

$ git add README.md
$ git commit m "Update MD"

Output:

This message tells us that our commit cannot go through because another process is running on Git.

Solution

The easiest way to fix this error is to remove the index.lock file from our repository. Git creates an index.lock file every time we try to run a Git command.

This file is stored in the Git configuration file and we can delete it using the following command.

rm -f .git/index.lock

The above command will clear the cache on the index, allowing us to complete the commit command. Note that we do not use git rmthe index.lock file because it is not part of the Git repository we are tracking.

In short, you cannot run two Git processes at the same time.

If Git prompts you with the error “ Another git process seems to be running in this repository ”, you must delete the index.lock file to free Git. Then you can run the commands you want.