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
    fetch API

    One of the worst kept secrets about AJAX on the web is that the underlying API for it, XMLHttpRequest, wasn't really made for what we've been using it for.  We've done well to create elegant APIs around XHR but we know we can do better.  Our effort to...

  • By
    Interview with a Pornhub Web Developer

    Regardless of your stance on pornography, it would be impossible to deny the massive impact the adult website industry has had on pushing the web forward. From pushing the browser's video limits to pushing ads through WebSocket so ad blockers don't detect them, you have...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Xbox Live Gamer API

    My sharpshooter status aside, I've always been surprised upset that Microsoft has never provided an API for the vast amount of information about users, the games they play, and statistics within the games. Namely, I'd like to publicly shame every n00b I've baptized with my...

  • By
    dwClickable:  Entire Block Clickable Using MooTools 1.2

    I recently received an email from a reader who was really impressed with Block Clickable, a jQuery script that took the link within a list item and made the entire list item clickable. I thought it was a neat script so I...

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!