git-removed-branches

List or remove local tracked branches, which are deleted from the remote.

Why?

Because I'm tired of doing every time git fetch -p, git branch -r, git branch and keep comparing which branches are gone from the GitHub, but still available locally and doing git branch -D ${branch_name} on one by one of them.

What does it do

This command will compare your local branches with remote and show you branches that are no longer available on remote but are still presented in your local repository. You can use it to view and delete all (remotely) removed branches in one go using --prune flag.

This command works without the need to run git fetch -p, but a working network connection to your remote is required. If no connection can be established with the remote repository, then local information about your remote will be used instead. If your local repository is not in sync with the remote repository, it will warn you about it.

Installation

NPM

$ npm install -g git-removed-branches

Please install a package globally with -g flag so that you can use it directly as a subcommand of git, like this:

$ git removed-branches

Python

It's also possible to use python instead of node.js/npm package. Download git-removed-branches.py script, remove the extension and place it inside your $PATH variable so that you can use it directly as a subcommand of git:

$ git removed-branches

Usage

$ git removed-branches

This command will look through the branches that are no longer available on the remote and display them. In case you haven't run git fetch -p, it will warn you to do so.

Removing

To delete local branches use --prune or -p flag

$ git removed-branches --prune

Different remote

If you have configured remote alias to something different than 'origin', you can use --remote or -r flag to specify the name of the remote. e.g., to specify remote to be upstream, you can use:

$ git removed-branches --remote upstream

Forcing removal

If you get an error when trying to delete branches:

The branch {branch_name} is not fully merged.

you can force deletion by using --force flag or use -f alias

$ git removed-branches --prune --force