diff --git a/extensions/git/src/git.ts b/extensions/git/src/git.ts
index cea9edd799abf27366c71c250e5f5b0ac975d374..a6d79456ed254131f15f28fed2e72a08c24c89a7 100644
--- a/extensions/git/src/git.ts
+++ b/extensions/git/src/git.ts
@@ -795,10 +795,10 @@ export class Repository {
 		return parseLsFiles(stdout);
 	}
 
-	async getGitRelativePath(treeish: string, relativePath: string): Promise<string> {
+	async getGitRelativePath(ref: string, relativePath: string): Promise<string> {
 		const relativePathLowercase = relativePath.toLowerCase();
 		const dirname = path.posix.dirname(relativePath) + '/';
-		const elements: { file: string; }[] = treeish ? await this.lstree(treeish, dirname) : await this.lsfiles(dirname);
+		const elements: { file: string; }[] = ref ? await this.lstree(ref, dirname) : await this.lsfiles(dirname);
 		const element = elements.filter(file => file.file.toLowerCase() === relativePathLowercase)[0];
 
 		if (!element) {
diff --git a/extensions/git/src/repository.ts b/extensions/git/src/repository.ts
index ece6ef8fb37f50bd1777eacfc12e8bb888fbf40c..b3af06983127e2d0cd50913c9fa02950dbcd7c1b 100644
--- a/extensions/git/src/repository.ts
+++ b/extensions/git/src/repository.ts
@@ -882,10 +882,6 @@ export class Repository implements Disposable {
 			const defaultEncoding = configFiles.get<string>('encoding');
 			const autoGuessEncoding = configFiles.get<boolean>('autoGuessEncoding');
 
-			if (ref === '') {
-				ref = 'HEAD';
-			}
-
 			try {
 				return await this.repository.bufferString(`${ref}:${relativePath}`, defaultEncoding, autoGuessEncoding);
 			} catch (err) {