Solution to the Git problem of loose object is corrupt

This post documents how we can fix the problem of loose object is corrupt in git.

I run a Ubuntu guest system as a virtual machine in a Windows host with VirtualBox. Sometimes, especially when the machine is shutdown abruptly, a git directory will be damaged, showing the following error messages:

error: object file .git/objects/e1/ref is empty
error: object file .git/objects/e1/ref is empty
fatal: loose object e1ref (stored in .git/objects/e1/ref) is corrupt

The solution is:

find .git/objects/ -size 0 -exec rm -f {} \;
git fetch origin

Then run git status, the repo should be functional again.

This solution was found from StackOverflow along with a few other solutions. I chose it because it involves the least effort.