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shruti jain
shruti jain

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Git Branch Management: Merged, Unmerged, and Clean-Up — A No-Nonsense Cheatsheet

#git #vscode #developer

Keeping your Git repo clean is underrated. I’ve seen teams drown in a sea of stale branches — some merged, some half-baked, some lost to time.

So here’s a practical cheatsheet I put together to manage local branches like a pro. If you’re tired of guessing what's merged and what's just wasting disk space, this one’s for you.

🔍 1. List Local Branches Merged into master 

git branch --merged master
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Why: These are safe to delete. Their commits are already in master.

🔍 2. List Local Branches Not Merged into master 

git branch --no-merged master
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Why: These might have unmerged work. Review before deleting.

✅ 3. Check if a Specific Branch Is Fully Merged 

git merge-base --is-ancestor your-branch master && echo "Merged ✅" || echo "Not merged ❌"
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Why: Quick yes/no check without manually scanning logs.

🍒 4. See What’s Unique to Your Branch (git cherry FTW) 

git cherry master your-branch
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  • + = unique commit in your branch
  • - = already in master
  • No output = fully merged

🧼 5. Delete Local Branches 

git branch -d your-branch    # Safe delete (if merged)
git branch -D your-branch    # Force delete (if unmerged)
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Use with caution. Especially -D.

☁️ 6. Delete Remote Branch 

git push origin --delete your-branch
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Why: Local cleanup is one thing. Don't leave junk on origin either.

⏱ 7. Sort Local Branches by Last Commit Date 

git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate --format="%(committerdate:short)  %(refname:short)" refs/heads/
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Why: Spot stale or abandoned branches quickly.

📊 8. One-Liner: Show Merged vs Not Merged Branches 

echo "=== Merged ==="; git branch --merged master; echo ""; echo "=== Not Merged ==="; git branch --no-merged master
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Why: Good for audits and cleanup days.

🧽 9. Auto-Delete All Safe-to-Remove Local Branches 

git branch --merged master | grep -vE '^\*|master|main|dev' | xargs -n 1 git branch -d
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Why: Deletes all merged local branches except the important ones (master, main, dev, current branch).

🎯 Bonus Tip: Automate It

Add a script or alias for regular cleanup. Git hygiene = happier devs + cleaner merges.

Final Thoughts

Don’t let your repo turn into a graveyard of zombie branches. A few CLI tricks like these can keep things lean, understandable, and merge-conflict-free.

Got a favorite cleanup command or Git trick? Drop it in the comments — let’s trade war tools.

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kamalmost profile image
KamalMostafa •

Useful indeed Thx 4 sharing