This patch allows handling directories inside the refs/heads. This was added in dulwich 0.19.X series diff -rup dulwich-0.13.0-orig/dulwich/refs.py dulwich-0.13.0/dulwich/refs.py --- dulwich-0.13.0-orig/dulwich/refs.py 2018-10-09 09:42:38.182597268 +0200 +++ dulwich-0.13.0/dulwich/refs.py 2018-10-09 09:43:39.057145566 +0200 @@ -509,7 +509,7 @@ class DiskRefsContainer(RefsContainer): # Read only the first 40 bytes return header + f.read(40 - len(SYMREF)) except IOError as e: - if e.errno == errno.ENOENT: + if e.errno in (errno.ENOENT, errno.EISDIR): return None raise