Delete local Git branches after deleting them on the remote repo

Question 1

The quick way

git branch --merged | grep -v "\*" | xargs -n 1 git branch -d

NB: if you're not on master, this has the potential to delete the branch. Keep reading for the "better way".

Make sure we keep master

You can ensure that master, or any other branch for that matter, doesn't get removed by greping for more. In that case you would go:

git branch --merged | grep -v "\*" | grep -v "YOUR_BRANCH_TO_KEEP" | xargs -n 1 git branch -d

So if we wanted to keep master, develop and staging for instance, we would go:

git branch --merged | grep -v "\*" | grep -Ev "(\*|master|develop|staging)" | xargs -n 1 git branch -d

Make this an alias

Since it's a bit long, you might want to add an alias to your .zshrc or .bashrc. Mine is called gbpurge (for git branches purge):

alias gbpurge='git branch --merged | grep -Ev "(\*|master|develop|staging)" | xargs -n 1 git branch -d'

Then reload your .bashrc or .zshrc:

. ~/.bashrc

or

. ~/.zshrc

Question 2

I use the same flow with GitHub, and didn't find the previous answers satisfying me, as git branch --merged lists branches which were merged, but not every of them was removed remotely in my case. So, this worked for me:

git fetch --all -p; git branch -vv | grep ": gone]" | awk '{ print $1 }' | xargs -n 1 git branch -d

where:

git fetch --all -p: update local branches status
git branch -vv: list local branches status
grep ": gone]": filter deleted ones
awk '{ print $1 }': extract their names
xargs -n 1 git branch -d: pass the name to the delete command

Note: if you prefer, you could use -D instead of -d, which enforces the delete.

For example:

someUsr@someHost:~/repo$ git branch -a
basic-testing
integration-for-tests
* master
origin
playground-for-tests
test-services
remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master
remotes/origin/basic-testing
remotes/origin/master
remotes/origin/test-services

someUsr@someHost:~/repo$ git fetch --all -p; git branch -vv | grep ": gone]" | awk '{ print $1 }' | xargs -n 1 git branch -d
Fetching origin
Deleted branch integration-for-tests (was fbc609a).
Deleted branch playground-for-tests (was 584b900).

someUsr@someHost:~/repo$ git branch -a
basic-testing
* master
origin
test-services
remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master
remotes/origin/basic-testing
remotes/origin/master
remotes/origin/test-services

Reference:

http://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Branching-Remote-Branches

Question 3

try:

git pull --prune

which deletes your local branch, if its corresponding remote branch is deleted.

Updated:

The statement above is not that correct.

In fact, running git pull --prune will only REMOVE the remote-tracking branches such like

remotes/origin/fff
remotes/origin/dev
remotes/origin/master

Then, you can run git branch -r to check the remote-tracking branches left on your machine. Suppose the left branches are:

origin/dev
origin/master

which means the branch origin/fff is deleted.

So, after running git pull --prune, just run:

git branch --merged | grep -vFf <(git branch -r | cut -d'/' -f2-)

you can find out all the local branches which:

have no correspoding remote branches any more;
can be removed safely.

then, <the command above> | xargs git branch -d can delete all of them.

Question 4

This should work to avoid deleting the master and development branches with the accepted solution:

git branch --merged | egrep -v "^\*|master|development" | xargs -n 1 git branch -d

Question 5

For people using powershell, this is the equivalent to the answer above:

git branch -vv | Select-String -Pattern ': gone]' | ForEach-Object{($_ -split "\s+")[1]} | %{ git branch -D $_ }

Filter all the branches that are marked as gone
Call git branch -D on each of the found branches

Question 6

Very simple solution: remove your local repo and clone the remote one anew. May not seem very elegant, but it is simple and you'll understand exactly what you're doing without reading man pages :-).

Question 7

None of this was working for me. You can see my other answer here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/34969726/550454

But essentially, I now have this in my ~/.gitconfig:

[alias]
  prune-branches = !git remote prune origin && git branch -vv | grep ': gone]' | awk '{print $1}' | xargs -r git branch -d

Question 8

In the event that you've just pushed and merged your branch to master, then do the following in git bash:

git branch -d branch_name_to_delete

If you're currently in that branch it will push you back to master. At this point do a pull with

git pull

Question 9

I just do that to remove merged local branches:

git branch -d $(git branch --merged)

and in case you want to remove inexistent trackings too:

git pull --prune

Question 10

I've written this one-liner to list all local branches which do not have corresponding remote branch:

diff -u <(git branch|sed 's/..//') <(git branch -r|sed 's/..origin\///')|tail -n +4|sed -n "s/^-//p" -

After this done, deleting these local branches is easy with xargs:

diff -u <(git branch|sed 's/..//') <(git branch -r|sed 's/..origin\///')|tail -n +4|sed -n "s/^-//p" -|xargs -r git branch -d

Question 11

The voted answer does have the potential to delete master. Consdier the below practical example.

I had two feature branches hemen_README and hemen_BASEBOX which were merged into develop, and then develop was merged into master. The feature branches hemen_README and hemen_BASEBOX were deleted remotely but were still showing up locally. Also i am not on master locally, but on develop.

In that case

    hemen@hemen-MXC061:~/data/projects/vagrant-webdev$ git branch -v -a
    * develop                      671ad6c Merged in hemen_README (pull request #1)
        hemen_BASEBOX                a535c0f added global exec paths to puppet manifest
        hemen_README                 ba87489 Updated Readme with considerable details
        master                       8980894 [behind 7] Initial Vagrantfile, works for vagrant up. Also initial .gitignore
        remotes/origin/develop       671ad6c Merged in hemen_README (pull request #1)
        remotes/origin/hemen_BASEBOX a535c0f added global exec paths to puppet manifest
        remotes/origin/hemen_README  ba87489 Updated Readme with considerable details
        remotes/origin/master        2f093ce Merged in develop (pull request #3)

So if i run the above partial command

    hemen@hemen-MXC061:~/data/projects/vagrant-webdev$ git branch --merged | grep -v "\*"
        hemen_BASEBOX
        hemen_README
        master

Notice that it shows master too, which will eventually be deleted.

In any case I was able to do it. I am sharing my session log with you on how I achieved that.

    hemen@hemen-MXC061:~/data/projects/vagrant-webdev$ git remote prune origin --dry-run
    Pruning origin
    URL: git@bitbucket.org:hemenkapadiapublic/vagrant-webdev.git
     * [would prune] origin/hemen_BASEBOX
     * [would prune] origin/hemen_README
    hemen@hemen-MXC061:~/data/projects/vagrant-webdev$ git remote prune origin 
    Pruning origin
    URL: git@bitbucket.org:hemenkapadiapublic/vagrant-webdev.git
     * [pruned] origin/hemen_BASEBOX
     * [pruned] origin/hemen_README

I just checked whay will be pruned and then pruned it. looking at branch command below we have taken care of remotes

    hemen@hemen-MXC061:~/data/projects/vagrant-webdev$ git branch -v -a
    * develop                671ad6c Merged in hemen_README (pull request #1)
        hemen_BASEBOX          a535c0f added global exec paths to puppet manifest
        hemen_README           ba87489 Updated Readme with considerable details
        master                 8980894 [behind 7] Initial Vagrantfile, works for vagrant up. Also initial .gitignore
        remotes/origin/develop 671ad6c Merged in hemen_README (pull request #1)
        remotes/origin/master  2f093ce Merged in develop (pull request #3)

Now go ahead and delete local branches

    hemen@hemen-MXC061:~/data/projects/vagrant-webdev$ git branch -d hemen_BASEBOX 
    Deleted branch hemen_BASEBOX (was a535c0f).
    hemen@hemen-MXC061:~/data/projects/vagrant-webdev$ git branch -d hemen_README
    Deleted branch hemen_README (was ba87489).

Good now the branches are as desired.

    hemen@hemen-MXC061:~/data/projects/vagrant-webdev$ git branch -v -a
    * develop                671ad6c Merged in hemen_README (pull request #1)
        master                 8980894 [behind 7] Initial Vagrantfile, works for vagrant up. Also initial .gitignore
        remotes/origin/develop 671ad6c Merged in hemen_README (pull request #1)
        remotes/origin/master  2f093ce Merged in develop (pull request #3)