Question

When trying to delete a remote branch I get the following error:

$ git push work :18300-018_5
remote: Processing changes: refs: 1, done
! [remote rejected] 18300-018_5 (can not delete references)
error: failed to push some refs  [...]

Any ideas what this means?

Answer 1

That looks like a Gerrit answer, as illustrated in the function parseDelete().

  private void parseDelete(final ReceiveCommand cmd) {
    RefControl ctl = projectControl.controlForRef(cmd.getRefName());
    if (ctl.canDelete()) {
      // Let the core receive process handle it
    } else {
      reject(cmd, "can not delete references");
    }
  }

This is link to a push policy controlled by Gerrit.

This category controls how users are allowed to upload new commits to projects in Gerrit.
Deletion of existing branches is rejected. This is the safest mode as commits cannot be discarded.

So unless you activate the “Force option” on this Gerrit category, you won’t be able to delete a branch on that server.