How do I delete a Git branch locally and remotely?

Question

I want to delete a branch both locally and remotely.

Failed Attempts to Delete Remote Branch:

$ git branch -d remotes/origin/bugfix
error: branch 'remotes/origin/bugfix' not found.

$ git branch -d origin/bugfix
error: branch 'origin/bugfix' not found.

$ git branch -rd origin/bugfix
Deleted remote branch origin/bugfix (was 2a14ef7).

$ git push
Everything up-to-date

$ git pull
From github.com:gituser/gitproject
* [new branch] bugfix -> origin/bugfix
Already up-to-date.

What should I do differently to successfully delete the remotes/origin/bugfix branch both locally and remotely?

Answer 1

I also had similar issues, and this seems to work: This deletes local branch. git branch -d the_local_branch

This removes remote branch git push origin :the_remote_branch

Source: Makandra Cards

Answer 2

git push origin :bugfix  # Deletes remote branch
git branch -d bugfix     # Must delete local branch manually

If you are sure you want to delete it, run

git branch -D bugfix

Now to clean up deleted remote branches run

git remote prune origin

Answer 3

The Short Answers

If you want more detailed explanations of the following commands, then see the long answers in the next section.

Deleting a remote branch:

git push origin --delete <branch>  # Git version 1.7.0 or newer
git push origin :<branch>          # Git versions older than 1.7.0

Deleting a local branch:

git branch --delete <branch>
git branch -d <branch> # Shorter version
git branch -D <branch> # Force delete un-merged branches

Deleting a local remote-tracking branch:

git branch --delete --remotes <remote>/<branch>
git branch -dr <remote>/<branch> # Shorter

git fetch <remote> --prune # Delete multiple obsolete tracking branches
git fetch <remote> -p      # Shorter

The Long Answer: there are 3 different branches to delete!

When you're dealing with deleting branches both locally and remotely, keep in mind that there are 3 different branches involved:

1. The local branch X.
2. The remote origin branch X.
3. The local remote-tracking branch origin/X that tracks the remote branch X.

The original poster used

git branch -rd origin/bugfix

which only deleted his local remote-tracking branch origin/bugfix, and not the actual remote branch bugfix on origin.

To delete that actual remote branch, you need

git push origin --delete bugfix

Additional Details

The following sections describe additional details to consider when deleting your remote and remote-tracking branches.

Pushing to delete remote branches also deletes remote-tracking branches

Note that deleting the remote branch X from the command line using a git push will also delete the local remote-tracking branch origin/X, so it is not necessary to prune the obsolete remote-tracking branch with git fetch --prune or git fetch -p, though it wouldn't hurt if you did it anyway.

You can verify that the remote-tracking branch origin/X was also deleted by running the following:

# View just remote-tracking branches
git branch --remotes
git branch -r

# View both strictly local as well as remote-tracking branches
git branch --all
git branch -a

Pruning the obsolete local remote-tracking branch origin/X

If you didn't delete your remote branch X from the command line (like above), then your local repo will still contain (a now obsolete) remote-tracking branch origin/X. This can happen if you deleted a remote branch directly through GitHub's web interface, for example.

A typical way to remove these obsolete remote-tracking branches (since Git version 1.6.6) is to simply run git fetch with the --prune or shorter -p. Note that this removes all obsolete local remote-tracking branches for any remote branches that no longer exist on the remote:

git fetch origin --prune
git fetch origin -p # Shorter

Here is the relevant quote from the 1.6.6 release notes (emphasis mine):

"git fetch" learned --all and --multipleoptions, to run fetch from many repositories, and --prune option to remove remote tracking branches that went stale. These make "git remote update" and "git remote prune" less necessary (there is no plan to remove "remote update" nor "remote prune", though).

Alternative to above automatic pruning for obsolete remote-tracking branches

Alternatively, instead of pruning your obsolete local remote-tracking branches through git fetch -p, you can avoid making the extra network operation by just manually removing the branch(es) with the --remote or -r flags:

git branch --delete --remotes origin/X
git branch -dr origin/X # Shorter

See Also

• git-branch(1) Manual Page.
• git-fetch(1) Manual Page.
• Pro Git § 3.5 Git Branching - Remote Branches.

Answer 4

Delete remote branch

git push origin :<branchname>

Delete local branch

git branch -D <branchname>

Delete local branch steps:

1. checkout to another branch
2. delete local branch

Answer 5

Deleting Branches

Let's assume our work on branch "contact-form" is done and we've already integrated it into "master". Since we don't need it anymore, we can delete it (locally):

$ git branch -d contact-form

And for deleting the remote branch:

git push origin --delete contact-form

Answer 6

If you want to delete a branch, first checkout to the branch other than the branch to be deleted.

git checkout other_than_branch_to_be_deleted

Deleting the local branch:

git branch -D branch_to_be_deleted

Deleting the remote branch:

git push origin --delete branch_to_be_deleted

Answer 7

This is simple: Just run the following command:

To delete a Git branch both locally and remotely, first delete the local branch using command:

git branch -d example

(here example is the branch name)

And after that delete remote branch using command:

git push origin :example

Answer 8

git branch -D <name-of-branch>
git branch -D -r origin/<name-of-branch>
git push origin :<name-of-branch>

Answer 9

If you want to complete both these steps with a single command, you can make an alias for it by adding the below to your ~/.gitconfig:

[alias]
    rmbranch = "!f(){ git branch -d ${1} && git push origin --delete ${1}; };f"

Alternatively, you can add this to your global config from the command line using

git config --global alias.rmbranch \
'!f(){ git branch -d ${1} && git push origin --delete ${1}; };f'

NOTE: If using -d (lowercase d), the branch will only be deleted if it has been merged. To force the delete to happen, you will need to use -D (uppercase D).