Remove merged branches from your local machine

Remove merged branches from your local machine

If you work with a remote Git repository, you might encounter a situation where you still have branches on your local machine, but those branches have been removed from the remote repository.

• Open a bash terminal (if you are on Windows you will have git bash. CMD, and PowerShell will not work).

• Run the following command:

  git fetch -p && git branch -vv | awk '/: gone]/{print $1}' | xargs git branch -d
  

Let’s break down the command:

git fetch -p: This command fetches the branches and their commits from the remote repository to your local repository. The -p or --prune option removes any remote-tracking references (i.e., origin/branch-name) to branches that have been deleted on the remote repository.

&&: This is a logical AND operator. In the context of command-line operations, it means “execute the following command only if the previous command succeeded.”

git branch -vv: This command lists all local branches and their upstream branches. If a local branch’s upstream branch has been deleted, it will show [gone] next to it.

An example where deleted-branch is deleted, only-local-branch was never pushed to the remote repository, and main and test-branch are both local and remote.

|awk '/:gone]/{print $1}': This part of the command pipes (|) the output of the previous command to awk, a text processing utility. The awk command is programmed to match lines containing :gone] and print the first field ($1) of those lines, which is the branch name.

The result of git fetch -p && git branch -vv | awk ‘/: gone]/{print $1}’ given me only deleted-branch

| xargs git branch -d: This part of the command pipes the output of the previous command (i.e., the names of the branches to be deleted) to xargs, which executes the git branch -d command for each input. The git branch -d command deletes a branch.

So, in summary, this command fetches updates from the remote repository, identifies local branches whose upstream branches have been deleted, and deletes those local branches.

Bonus

This is the error if you try to run it during a merge

Comments

[𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️]

Cool script, but personally I would feel a bit paranoid about just yeeting branches like that. I'd probably drop this into a script and make it so it opens a list of commands in vim or something so I could individually decide if I want to keep any of them after all

[Tom Nijhof]

It does check if the branches are related to a "gone" origin branch. If you have a branch without origin, it will stay. So only if the origin branch is merged or delete it will delete the local one

[𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️]

Yea, but I can think of cases where that might happen where you still wouldn't want to delete the local branch. Knowing myself, I just think this looks like a massive foot-gun, and I'd add some safety features to protect myself from myself.

[Tom Nijhof]

Do you not work with feature branches? I normally make a branch for a feature and when I am done with it I merge

But in the name of science!! I added a commit to a local branch where the remote was merged and deleted. It gave me this error:

Meaning it is not possible to delete local branches that are commits ahead

[𒎏Wii 🏳️‍⚧️]

What if you create a branch for local use, push it by accident and delete it from the remote repository again? Wouldn't that then cause the local branch to get deleted as well?

[Tom Nijhof]

Not if there are still commits on the branch, it will give the same error with not fully merged

[Julien Dephix]

And if you're using a JetBrains product you have the simple and effective Git Branch Cleaner plugin.
I mapped it to Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Delete so I get a modal which lists local branches that no longer have their remote equivalent. "select all" and "delete". Done!

[Willian Ferreira Moya]

Thanks! That's a great tip!
I'll start cleaning up my local branchs. My local branchs are a total mess, I'm starting to get loss on thing that I'm not working anymore, and this will help me do that fast!

[Fábio Luiz Barbosa]

I'm not sure how this will help, but I might be able to translate it to a PowerShell version if there is someone interested in that works a few tries and for the challenge as well. The main issue for me was how I could convert awk and xargs so far shorter that I was able to reach it was something like this:

git fetch -p; git branch -vv | ForEach-Object { if ($_ -match ':\s+gone\]') { git branch -d $_.Split(' ')[2] } }

[Tom Nijhof]

Thank you! Very useful for PowerShell users!!

[Jeremiah Smith]

This will work for PowerShell, cause posh-git is the bestest. Update it for your own use case (i.e. swap master for main). Also - I keep the first run as a lowercase -d and just scan the proposed branches to delete before I swap the git branch -d command to use a -D and run again.

git checkout master; git remote update origin --prune; git branch -vv | Select-String -Pattern ": gone]" | % { $_.toString().Trim().Split(" ")[0]} | % {git branch -d $_}

[Pixelrella]

Thanks for sharing! I appreciate that you took the time to break down the different parts of the commands. Your explanations were clear and concise.
Thanks to your descriptions, piping finally makes sense for me💡

[ben ajaero]

Thank you for the informative tutorial Tom!

This is definitely a useful workflow to clean things up.

I've been in situations where a branch is removed from origin but still exists locally, causing confusion down the line. Please keep up the great content. I'll be sure to check out other articles on your blog!

[Tom Nijhof]

I will move my other articles too, the community interaction here is exactly what I missed on Medium!
Thank you all for a warm welcome

[Jakub Narębski]

You have perfectly fine git for-each-ref for scripting; why use git branch -vv intended for user output and then extracting data with awk?

[Tom Nijhof]

Simple: I did not though of it

[tnypxl]

Might be a great command for running at the end of every year on a cron job or something.

[Tom Nijhof]

I like to do it manually, given that I want to be in control of deleting actions. But I will not stop you from living life more dangerous!

[tnypxl]

I’m trying to automate my life away over here.

[Thomas Bnt]

Thanks for this information!
You have a little typo error with the markdown image 🙌

[Tom Nijhof]

Thanks for pointing it out, I think all of them are gone now. Was a bit more than one