How do I delete a Git branch locally and remotely?

Question

I want to delete a branch both locally and remotely.

Failed Attempts to Delete a Remote Branch

$ git branch -d         


        

Answer 1

To delete your branch locally and remotely

• Checkout to master branch - git checkout master

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

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

Answer 2

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

Answer 3

You can also do this using 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.

Answer 4

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

Relevant blog post: Create and delete branches

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

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