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When using Git, we may encounter the error "src refspace master does not match any".

Here's what the error means and how to fix it.

What does src refspec master does not match any Mean in Git mean?

We may encounter this error when we try to trigger a push from our local repository to the master repository, as shown below:

$ git push origin master

This error can occur for different reasons.

The most likely cause of this error is that the master branch does not exist.

Maybe we cloned a new repository and the default branch was main, so there was no master branch when we tried to push it.

We can display the remote branches connected to the local repository using the git branch -b command as follows:

$ git branch -b

# results
#  origin/main
#  origin/feat/authentication
#  origin/other branches ...

From the above results, we can see that there is no master repository (origin/master). Therefore, when we try to push to this repository, we will receive a "respec error".

This result also applies to any other non-existent branch. Let's say I make changes and push to a non-existent remote hello branch:

$ git add .
$ git commit -m "new changes"
$ git push origin hello

This command will produce the following error:

error: src refspec hello does not match any

How to fix "src refspec master does not match any" error

Now we know that the master branch does not exist. The solution to this error is to create a local and remote master branch to which you can push commits, or to push commits to an existing branch - perhaps main.

We can create a remote master branch on a Git-managed site like GitHub, or we can do it directly from our terminal like this:

$ git checkout -b master

# add commit

$ git push origin master

These commands will create a master branch locally. And by relocating pushto origin master , it will also create a master branch remotely.

However, if we don't want to create a master branch, we can use an existing default branch (probably main ) instead.

Summarize

So if you get the Error: src refspec master does not match any error when trying to push to master , the most plausible reason is that the master branch does not exist.