How To Delete A Git Branch (Local or Remote)
In this article, we will see how to delete a GIT branch both locally or remotely.
Short Snippet
Delete the local branch, if you finished working on a branch, and merged
git branch -d <the-local-branch>
Delete the local branch without checking the merged status
git branch -D <the-local-branch>
Delete remote branch (Git v1.7.0 and above)
git push origin --delete <the-remote-branch>
Delete remote branch (old syntax)
git push origin :<the-remote-branch>
Introduction
GIT is one of the most used software for version control. In GIT, branches are part of the day-to-day development process. A Git branch represents an independent line of development.
If you are a beginner I would recommend you to have a look at 8 Basic GIT Commands Every Newbie Developer Must Know.
Usually, all repositories have a main/master branch for the main code and team members create a feature or bug fix branches from the main/master branch.
You add your feature or add a bug-fix to your branch commit the changes and push it to the remote branch. You will create a pull request and your team lead will review your code and merge it to the main/master.
Since you have finished working on your branch you can choose to delete it.
How To Delete A Local Git Branch?
When you finished working on the feature or bug fix and your branch is merged to the master, you can use the following command to delete a local GIT branch
git branch -d <the-local-branch>
For example, If I need to delete my local Git branch fetaure/add-profile, I will hit the following command
git branch -d fetaure/add-profile
When you want to delete a GIT branch without checking the merged status, hit the command given below
git branch -D <the-local-branch>
For example, If I need to delete my local Git branch fetaure/add-profile without checking its merged status, I will hit the following command
git branch -D fetaure/add-profile
How To Delete A Remote Git Branch
If you are using the GIT v1.7.0 and above, hit the following command to delete the remote git branch
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git push <remote_name> --delete <branch_name>
Note: In most of the case the <remote_name> is origin.
For example If I want to delete my remote feature/add-profile branch, I will hit the following command.
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git push origin --delete feature/add-profile
Conclusion
We have seen how we can delete the local and remote branches in GIT.
If you want to delete the local branch
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git branch -d <branch_name>
If you want to delete the remote branch
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$ git push -d <remote_name> <branch_name>
In most of the cases <remote_name is origin.
That’s it for now, we will see more GIT-related articles in the future.
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