git fetch origin --prune doesn't delete local branches?
GitGit FetchGit Problem Overview
At one point I thought that git fetch origin --prune
deleted local branches that were no longer present on the server. Somehow this is not my experience at the moment.
I ran this command, and the local branch was not deleted. It is not currently checked out. I ran git branch -vv
to check this info, and I see
feature/MyGreatFeature f30efc7 [origin/feature/MyGreatFeature: gone]
So it seems to know that it is gone. Why would it not delete my local branch?
Running git version 2.7.4 (Apple Git-66)
Git Solutions
Solution 1 - Git
The various prune options (git remote update --prune
, git remote prune
, git fetch --prune
) only delete remote-tracking branches.1
You'll need to manually delete local branches you no longer want, or change or remove their upstream setting if the remote-tracking branch no longer exists. Note that each local branch can record a remote and/or branch that do not now, or even never did, exist. In this case Git mostly acts as if those local branches have no upstream set, except that since version 1.8.5, several commands report the upstream as "gone" or otherwise invalid, and may suggest using --unset-upstream
.
1More precisely, they delete destination refs after doing the refspec mapping from the command line or fetch
lines from the configuration. Hence, for fetch mirrors, they can delete local branches. Most clones are not set up as fetch mirrors, though.
There were some recent bug fixes for complex mappings, to make sure that Git did not prune a mapped branch in some cases when it should not. For any normal repository—ordinary clone or pure fetch mirror—these fixes have no effect; they matter only if you have complicated fetch
configurations.
Solution 2 - Git
The following command chain can be used to delete local branches:
git branch --v | grep "\[gone\]" | awk '{print $1}' | xargs git branch -D
git branch --v
lists the local branches verboselygrep "\[gone\]"
finds all the branches whose remote branch is goneawk '{print $1}'
outputs only the name of the matching local branchesxargs git branch -D
deletes all the matching local branches
This should work on MacOS as well as *nix environments.
Solution 3 - Git
This is how I do it with Powershell.
PS> git branch --v | ? { $_ -match "\[gone\]" } | % { -split $_ | select -First 1 } | % { git branch -D $_ }
You can then create an alias like:
PS> Function func_gitprune { git branch --v | ? { $_ -match "\[gone\]" } | % { -split $_ | select -First 1 } | % { git branch -D $_ } }
PS> Set-Alias -Name gitprune -Value func_gitprune
and execute it every time you need by running
PS> gitprune
Solution 4 - Git
The command you want is
$ git remote prune origin
This question is almost word for word what you're looking for.
Solution 5 - Git
For me this line works:
git branch -vv | grep "gone" | awk '{print $1}' | xargs git branch -D
Solution 6 - Git
In case people need the PowerShell version:
git branch --v | Select-String -Pattern ".*\[gone\].*" | ForEach-Object{($_ -split "\s+")[1]} | ForEach-Object{git branch -D $_}