TIL #089 – delete merged git branches

git productivity

Today I learned how to automatically delete local git branches that have been merged already.

Delete merged git branches

Today I ran the command git branch and I got scared when I saw the amount of results I got:

  codeql-on-code-change
  docs-improvements
  document-reactive-watch
  early-show-root
  escape-markup-in-md-headings
  fkaab/main
  gh-pages
  issue3637
* main
  opacity-component-classes
  tree-reload-preserve-state
  # ...

I had about 40 branches on me! However, most of them had been merged already and I wanted to get rid of them.

A ChatGPT solution

I was aware of two commands that I suspected could be used as the main ingredients:

  • git branch --merged lists branches that have been merged; and
  • git branch -d deletes a branch.

So, I opened ChatGPT and I asked it:

How can I combine the commands git branch --merged and git branch -d to delete all of the local branches that have been merged already?

ChatGPT complied to my request and gave me back this command:

git branch --merged | grep -v "\*" | xargs -n 1 git branch -d

It then proceeded to explain what each part does:

  1. git branch --merged lists all local branches that have been merged into the currently checked-out branch;
  2. grep -v "\*" excludes the currently checked-out branch from the list. The asterisk (*) is used to denote the currently checked-out branch in the git branch output; and
  3. xargs -n 1 git branch -d deletes each branch listed in the output using the git branch -d command. The -n 1 option specifies that xargs should pass one branch at a time to the git branch -d command.

I made sure to be in my branch main and then I ran this command to delete more than 30 branches that I no longer cared about.

Then, I asked on X if there were any issues with the approach that ChatGPT recommended. I explicitly tagged Adam Johnson, the author of “Boost Your Git DX” and a contributor to git, and I got some interesting replies.

A human solution

When I got feedback by more experienced users, they suggested a more robust version of the command. They gave me essentially two equivalent versions, so I'll show you just one:

git switch main &&
git pull --prune &&
git branch --format '%(refname:short) %(upstream:track)' | awk '$2 == "[gone]" { print $1 }' | xargs -r git branch -D

What are we doing here?

  • git switch main makes sure we're in the branch main;
  • git pull --prune updates local information about branches that have been deleted in the remote repository (e.g., branches you've deleted after merging pull requests);
  • git branch --format '%(refname:short) %(upstream:track)' lists all local branches with their name and information about the upstream branch. If a branch has been deleted upstream, the part %(upstream:track) will look like [gone];
  • awk '$2 == "[gone]" { print $1 }' uses awk to look for branches that show the output [gone] and prints the names of those branches; and
  • xargs -r git branch -D will take the names from the previous step and pass them to the command git branch -D.

I hope this made sense! If not, check the references below or go ahead and read about this in Adam's book “Boost Your Git DX”.

Finally, to top it all off, we'll create a git alias so that this is easy to run! The command below will create the alias sync:

git config --global alias.sync '!git switch main && git pull --prune && git branch --format '\''%(refname:short) %(upstream:track)'\'' | awk '\''$2 == "[gone]" { print $1 }'\'' | xargs -r git branch -D'

This will save an alias in your ~/.gitconfig file. Now, you can run git sync and it will run the chain of commands above.

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References

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