macos - remove .git/index.lock': Permission denied

Question

I'm completely stuck as to why my git has completely locked me out. I have a laptop that I use at work and when I'm home. For both accounts I use git extensively and both are located in different paths. Today I came into work and I can't do anything, all I see is:

/Applications/MAMP/htdocs/my_site/.git/index.lock': Permission denied

For all I care the branch I'm on can be deleted. I've tried removing the branch, checking out any other branch, removing the index.lock file (as suggested by other users on sites). I only have the terminal window open, no other possible programs using git (as far as I know and nothing noticeable in the activity window). I have rebooted the computer straight into my work account and still no luck. How can I remove this lock?

Answer 1

I had the exact same problem wanting to commit my changes to git, and solved it this way:

• I needed to change the group of my .git folder and its contents:

  sudo chown -R <owner>:<group> .git

• needed to change the permission of this folder:

  sudo chmod -R 775 .git