Git: Delete a branch (local or remote)

Updated . Posted . Visible to the public.

To delete a local branch

git branch -d the_local_branch

To remove a remote branch (if you know what you are doing!)

git push origin :the_remote_branch

or simply use the new syntax (v1.7.0)

git push origin --delete the_remote_branch

Note

If you get the error

error: unable to push to unqualified destination: the_remote_branch
The destination refspec neither matches an existing ref on the remote nor
begins with refs/, and we are unable to guess a prefix based on the source ref.
error: failed to push some refs to 'git@repository_name'

perhaps someone else has already deleted the branch. Try to synchronize your branch list with

git fetch -p 

The git manual says

 -p, --prune
           After fetching, remove any remote-tracking branches which no longer exist on the remote.
Tobias Kraze
Last edit
Daniel Straßner
License
Source code in this card is licensed under the MIT License.
Posted by Tobias Kraze to makandra dev (2010-08-31 07:46)