Git for Windows 2.24.1 introduced new checks for forbidden filenames on Windows (like AUX), and enabled core.protectNTFS by default. These restrictions were relaxed slightly in Git for Windows 2.25.0, to allow pushing repositories that include trees with forbidden paths, but the core.protectNTFS protections remain.

This can manifest, when hosting Bitbucket Server on Windows, in pull requests failing to merge because git reset fails. (See git-for-windows/git#2682)

Possible workarounds include:

• Downgrading to Git for Windows 2.24.0 or older
• Disabling core.protectNTFS in the .gitconfig for the user Bitbucket Server is run as
• Migrating to Linux for hosting Bitbucket Server

None of those workarounds could be termed "ideal", though. Another solution would be to allow Bitbucket Server administrators to selectively disable core.protectNTFS during merges for specific repositories. This leaves the core.protectNTFS checks enabled on the bare repositories Bitbucket Server manages, to provide additional protection, while still allowing merges in repositories that happen to contain forbidden paths (like the Linux kernel) to succeed.

*Note*: Merges that try to change forbidden paths will still fail. All this will do is allow merges that do not affect any forbidden paths in repositories where unmodified trees include forbidden paths to succeed.