Couldn't find remote ref HEAD (when releasing artifact with Jenkins and Maven)

Question

I am currently trying to use the maven-release-plugin working in jenkins on a Git project.

As shown below, there seems to be a missing reference to HEAD in my remote repository (on the server). This reference is only missing in project where the master branch name has been changed to something else.

10:12 $ git ls-remote https://git.mycompany.com/mycompany/common.git
cb6fd9d62d963e9d20499e7dcfcfc8742e799333    refs/heads/development
5fd387bcbaf56312a108b1e07236a25a325f1a79    refs/heads/production
d5d97e7ce2c634ce5ab8cb7d68a2cf9c67ece2ea    refs/tags/1.0.0
1317bcd74008313f0a9933d840fbcd4356ed51c7    refs/tags/1.0.0^{}

It there a way to create that kind of reference either from GitLab or remotely with Git ?

Here is the execution log from the maven-release-plugin:

[INFO] --- maven-release-plugin:2.5.1:perform (default-cli) @ common ---
[INFO] Checking out the project to perform the release ...
[INFO] Executing: /bin/sh -c cd /var/lib/jenkins/jobs/common/workspace/common/target && git clone --branch 1.0.1 https://git.mycompany.com/mycompany/common.git /var/lib/jenkins/jobs/common/workspace/common/target/checkout
[INFO] Working directory: /var/lib/jenkins/jobs/common/workspace/common/target
[INFO] Executing: /bin/sh -c cd /tmp && git ls-remote https://git.mycompany.com/mycompany/common.git
[INFO] Working directory: /tmp
[INFO] Executing: /bin/sh -c cd /var/lib/jenkins/jobs/common/workspace/common/target/checkout && git fetch https://git.mycompany.com/mycompany/common.git
[INFO] Working directory: /var/lib/jenkins/jobs/common/workspace/common/target/checkout
[ERROR] The git-pull command failed.
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Reactor Summary:
[INFO] 
[INFO] common ............................................. FAILURE [ 32.825 s]
[INFO] common :: common-validation ........................ SKIPPED
[INFO] common :: common-sessions .......................... SKIPPED
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD FAILURE
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 33.960 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2015-02-03T10:39:04+01:00
[INFO] Final Memory: 20M/395M
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-release-plugin:2.5.1:perform (default-cli) on project common: Unable to checkout from SCM
[ERROR] Provider message:
[ERROR] The git-pull command failed.
[ERROR] Command output:
[ERROR] Cloning into '/var/lib/jenkins/jobs/common/workspace/common/target/checkout'...
[ERROR] Note: checking out '78ec6e9c81d25890de75ce671d809bf5d3949ed8'.
[ERROR] 
[ERROR] You are in 'detached HEAD' state. You can look around, make experimental
[ERROR] changes and commit them, and you can discard any commits you make in this
[ERROR] state without impacting any branches by performing another checkout.
[ERROR] 
[ERROR] If you want to create a new branch to retain commits you create, you may
[ERROR] do so (now or later) by using -b with the checkout command again. Example:
[ERROR] 
[ERROR] git checkout -b new_branch_name
[ERROR] 
[ERROR] fatal: Couldn't find remote ref HEAD
[ERROR] Unexpected end of command stream
[ERROR] -> [Help 1]
[ERROR] 
[ERROR] To see the full stack trace of the errors, re-run Maven with the -e switch.
[ERROR] Re-run Maven using the -X switch to enable full debug logging.
[ERROR] 
[ERROR] For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles:

Answer 1

Apparently this was a GitLab-related issue.

The default branch was set but after setting (in project settings) an other branch as default, the HEAD reference appeared :

cb6fd9d62d963e9d20499e7dcfcfc8742e799333    HEAD
cb6fd9d62d963e9d20499e7dcfcfc8742e799333    refs/heads/development
07bef68adb8d10956bdba81d07887f793feab76b    refs/heads/production
d5d97e7ce2c634ce5ab8cb7d68a2cf9c67ece2ea    refs/tags/1.0.0
1317bcd74008313f0a9933d840fbcd4356ed51c7    refs/tags/1.0.0^{}

I switched it back to the default branch and the HEAD is still there.

And the release process is successful