How to Delete a git Remote Branch

By  on  

Keeping a tidy repository is important; not just a tidy codebase, but a tidy repository in as far as not having spare branches rotting around.  Generally the main repository doesn't keep multiple branches but sometimes you need to push to a main repository simply to get Travis CI to run tests.  Once a branch is merged, for example, we no longer need it around.

Deleting a branch on a local host machine repo is easy:

git branch -d <branch_name>

To remove a branch from the remote git repository, like a GitHub-hosted repository, you can execute:

git push <remote_name> --delete <branch_name>

If you learned something here, check out Delete Merged Branches with git!

Recent Features

  • By
    CSS @supports

    Feature detection via JavaScript is a client side best practice and for all the right reasons, but unfortunately that same functionality hasn't been available within CSS.  What we end up doing is repeating the same properties multiple times with each browser prefix.  Yuck.  Another thing we...

  • By
    CSS Gradients

    With CSS border-radius, I showed you how CSS can bridge the gap between design and development by adding rounded corners to elements.  CSS gradients are another step in that direction.  Now that CSS gradients are supported in Internet Explorer 8+, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    CSS Tooltips

    We all know that you can make shapes with CSS and a single HTML element, as I've covered in my CSS Triangles and CSS Circles posts.  Triangles and circles are fairly simply though, so as CSS advances, we need to stretch the boundaries...

  • By
    Multiple Background CSS Animations

    CSS background animation has been a hot topic for a long time, mostly because they look pretty sweet and don't require additional elements.  I was recently asked if it was possible to have multiple background animations on a given element and the answer is yes...with...

Discussion

  1. It is even easier to delete a remote branch!

    git push origin :BRANCH_NAME

    Note the colon before the branch.

  2. You can also do

    git push :BRANCH_NAME

    – Note the colon, that states to delete the remote branch!

    • So it seems like it parsed my placeholders as HTML;

      git push origin :develop
      

      Would delete develop branch on the origin remote.

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!