How do I delete a Git branch both locally and remotely?

I want to delete a branch both locally and on my remote project fork on GitHub.

$ 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 do I need to do differently to successfully delete the
remotes/origin/bugfix branch both locally and on GitHub?

remotes/origin/bugfix

deleted remote-tracking branch

39 Answers
39

Executive Summary

$ git push --delete <remote_name> <branch_name>
$ git branch -d <branch_name>


Note that in most cases the remote name is origin.

origin

Delete Local Branch

To delete the local branch use one of the following:

$ git branch -d branch_name
$ git branch -D branch_name


Note: The -d option is an alias for --delete, which only deletes the branch if it has already been fully merged in its upstream branch. You could also use -D, which is an alias for --delete --force, which deletes the branch "irrespective of its merged status." [Source: man git-branch]

-d

--delete

-D

--delete --force

man git-branch

Delete Remote Branch [Updated on 8-Sep-2017]

As of Git v1.7.0, you can delete a remote branch using

$ git push <remote_name> --delete <branch_name>


which might be easier to remember than

$ git push <remote_name> :<branch_name>


which was added in Git v1.5.0 "to delete a remote branch or a tag."

Starting on Git v2.8.0 you can also use git push with the -d option as an alias for --delete.

git push

-d

--delete

Therefore, the version of Git you have installed will dictate whether you need to use the easier or harder syntax.

From Chapter 3 of Pro Git by Scott Chacon:

Suppose you’re done with a remote branch — say, you and your collaborators are finished with a feature and have merged it into your remote’s master branch (or whatever branch your stable codeline is in). You can delete a remote branch using the rather obtuse syntax git push [remotename] :[branch]. If you want to delete your serverfix branch from the server, you run the following:

git push [remotename] :[branch]

$ git push origin :serverfix
To git@github.com:schacon/simplegit.git
- [deleted] serverfix


Boom. No more branch on your server. You may want to dog-ear this page, because you’ll need that command, and you’ll likely forget the syntax. A way to remember this command is by recalling the git push [remotename] [localbranch]:[remotebranch] syntax that we went over a bit earlier. If you leave off the [localbranch] portion, then you’re basically saying, “Take nothing on my side and make it be [remotebranch].”

git push [remotename] [localbranch]:[remotebranch]

[localbranch]

[remotebranch]

I issued git push origin :bugfix and it worked beautifully. Scott Chacon was right—I will want to dog ear that page (or virtually dog ear by answering this on Stack Overflow).

git push origin :bugfix

Then you should execute this on other machines

git fetch --all --prune


to propagate changes.

git push origin local_branch:remote_branch

git push origin :remote_branch

:

git fetch --all --prune

git branch -d

git push origin --delete

git branch -a

git fetch --all --prune

git branch -a

git branch -r

git remote show origin

git branch -D Branch_Name

Matthew's answer is great for removing remote branches and I also appreciate the explanation, but to make a simple distinction between the two commands:

To remove a local branch from your machine:

git branch -d the_local_branch (use -D instead to force deleting the branch without checking merged status)

git branch -d the_local_branch

-D

To remove a remote branch from the server:

git push origin --delete the_remote_branch

git push origin --delete the_remote_branch

Reference: https://makandracards.com/makandra/621-git-delete-a-branch-local-or-remote

-D

-d

'git branch -d your_branch

error: The branch 'your_branch' is not fully merged. If you are sure you want to delete it, run 'git branch -D your_branch'.

git remote prune <name>

git remote prune origin

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:

X

X

origin/X

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.

origin/bugfix

bugfix

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.

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.

X

git push

origin/X

git fetch --prune

git fetch -p

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

origin/X

# 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


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.

X

origin/X

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

--prune

-p

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).

--all

--multiple

--prune

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 fetch -p

--remote

-r

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


X

origin/X

X

for deleting the remote branch:

git push origin --delete <your_branch>


for deleting the local branch, you have three ways:

1: git branch -D <branch_name>

2: git branch --delete --force <branch_name> //same as -D

3: git branch --delete <branch_name> //error on unmerge


Explain: OK, just explain what's going on here!

Simply do git push origin --delete to delete your remote branch ONLY, add the name of the branch at the end and this will delete and push it to remote at the same time...

git push origin --delete

Also, git branch -D, which simply delete the local branch ONLY!...

git branch -D

-D stands for --delete --force which will delete the branch even it's not merged(force delete), but you can also use -d which stands for --delete which throw an error respective of the branch merge status...

-D

--delete --force

-d

--delete

I also create the image below to show the steps:

git branch -a

You can also use the following to delete the remote branch.

git push --delete origin serverfix


Which does the same thing as

git push origin :serverfix


but it may be easier to remember.

git branch -d <local_branch>

git branch -D <local_branch>

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


Tip: When you delete branches using

git branch -d <branchname> # deletes local branch


or

git push origin :<branchname> # deletes remote branch


only the references are deleted. Even though the branch is actually removed on the remote the references to it still exists in the local repositories of your team members. This means that for other team members the deleted branches are still visible when they do a git branch -a.

git branch -a

To solve this your team members can prune the deleted branches with

git remote prune <repository>


This is typically git remote prune origin.

git remote prune origin

git push

git remote prune

git fetch --prune

git fetch -p

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


-D

-d

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)

example

And after that delete remote branch using command:

git push origin :example


Another approach is

git push --prune origin


WARNING: This will delete all remote branches that do not exist locally. Or more comprehensively,

git push --mirror


will effectively make the remote repository look like the local copy of the repository (local heads, remotes and tags are mirrored on remote).

git push --prune origin

I use the following in my Bash settings:

alias git-shoot="git push origin --delete"


Then you can call:

git-shoot branchname


git push origin --delete $1

git-shoot

git shoot branchname

Since January 2013, GitHub included a Delete branch button next to each branch in your "Branches" page.

Relevant blog post: Create and delete branches

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:

~/.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).

-d

-D

&&

;

To delete your branch locally and remotely

Checkout to master branch - git checkout master

git checkout master

Delete your remote branch - git push origin --delete <branch-name>

git push origin --delete <branch-name>

Delete your local branch - git branch --delete <branch-name>

git branch --delete <branch-name>

Delete locally:

To delete a local branch, you can use:

git branch -d branch_name


To delete a branch forcibly, use -D instead of -d.

-D

-d

git branch -D branch_name


Delete remotely:

There are two options:

git push origin :branchname

git push origin --delete branchname


I would suggest you use the 2nd way as it is more intuitive.

You can also do this using git remote prune origin:

git remote prune origin

$ git remote prune origin
Pruning origin
URL: git@example.com/yourrepo.git
* [pruned] origin/some-branchs


It prunes and deletes remote-tracking branches from a git branch -r listing.

git branch -r

In addition to the other answers, I often use the git_remote_branch tool. It's an extra install, but it gets you a convenient way to interact with remote branches. In this case, to delete:

grb delete branch


I find that I also use the publish and track commands quite often.

publish

track

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


One liner command delete both local, and remote:

D=branch-name; git branch -D $D; git push origin :$D

D=branch-name; git branch -D $D; git push origin :$D

or add the alias below to your ~/.gitconfig; usage: git kill branch-name

git kill branch-name

[alias]
kill = "!f() git branch -D "$1"; git push origin --delete "$1"; ;f"


git branch -D

-d

Delete remote branch

git push origin :<branchname>

git push origin :<branchname>

Delete local branch

git branch -D <branchname>

git branch -D <branchname>

Delete local branch steps:

git push origin :<branchname>

Simply say:

git branch -d <branch-name>
git push origin :<branch-name>


Now you can do it with the GitHub Desktop app.

After launching the app

To delete Locally - (Normal),

git branch -d my_branch


If your branch in rebasing/merging progress and that was not done properly means, you will get an error Rebase/Merge in progress so in that case, you won't be able to delete your branch.

Rebase/Merge in progress

So either your need to solve rebasing/merging otherwise you can do force Delete by using,

git branch -D my_branch


To delete in Remote:

git push --delete origin my_branch


can do the same using ,

git push origin :my_branch # easy to remember both will do the same.


Graphical Representation,

git push origin --delete branchName


is easier to remember than

git push origin :branchName


This won't work if you have a tag with the same name as the branch on the remote:

$ git push origin :branch-or-tag-name
error: dst refspec branch-or-tag-name matches more than one.
error: failed to push some refs to 'git@github.com:SomeName/some-repo.git'


In that case you need to specify that you want to delete the branch, not the tag:

git push origin :refs/heads/branch-or-tag-name


Similarly, to delete the tag instead of the branch you would use:

git push origin :refs/tags/branch-or-tag-name


Many of the other answers will lead to errors/warnings. This approach is relatively fool proof although you may still need git branch -D branch_to_delete if it's not fully merged into some_other_branch, for example.

git branch -D branch_to_delete

some_other_branch

git checkout some_other_branch
git push origin :branch_to_delete
git branch -d branch_to_delete


Remote pruning isn't needed if you deleted the remote branch. It's only used to get the most up to date remotes available on a repo you're tracking. I've observed git fetch will add remotes, not remove them. Here's an example of when git remote prune origin will actually do something:

git fetch

git remote prune origin

User A does the steps above. User B would run the following commands to see the most up to date remote branches

git fetch
git remote prune origin
git branch -r


I got sick of googling for this answer, so I took a similar approach
to the answer that crizCraig posted earlier.

Added the following to my Bash profile:

function gitdelete()
git push origin --delete $1
git branch -D $1



Then every time I'm done with a branch (merged into master, for example) I run the following in my terminal:

master

gitdelete my-branch-name


...which then deletes my-branch-name from origin as as well as locally.

my-branch-name

origin

--delete "$@"

-D "$@"

$1

git branch -d

&&

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


Before executing

git branch --delete <branch>


make sure you determine first what the EXACT name of the remote branch is by executing:

git ls-remote


This will tell you what to enter EXACTLY for <branch> value. (branch is case sensitive!)

<branch>

branch

Mashup of all the other answers. Requires Ruby 1.9.3+, tested only on OS X.

Call this file git-remove, make it executable, and put it in your path. Then use, for example, git remove temp.

git-remove

git remove temp

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
require 'io/console'

if __FILE__ == $0
branch_name = ARGV[0] if (ARGV[0])
print "Press Y to force delete local and remote branch #branch_name..."
response = STDIN.getch
if ['Y', 'y', 'yes'].include?(response)
puts "nContinuing."
`git branch -D #branch_name`
`git branch -D -r origin/#branch_name`
`git push origin --delete #branch_name`
else
puts "nQuitting."
end
end


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