34

I know this has been covered before, but I have tried the following and can't seem to delete the remote branch. 

aly@neon:~/workspace/3DOD_VARIANCE$ git branch -a
* master
  remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master
  remotes/origin/master
  remotes/origin/multi_gauss_at_nodes
  remotes/origin/old-state-with-mean-deviation-from-centre
  remotes/origin/variance-branch


aly@neon:~/workspace/3DOD_VARIANCE$ git branch -r -d origin/old-state-with-mean-deviation-from-centre Deleted remote branch origin/old-state-with-mean-deviation-from-centre (was 0ed90b2).


Fetching origin
From https://bitbucket.org/alykhantejani/3dobjectdetection
 * [new branch]      old-state-with-mean-deviation-from-centre -> origin/old-state-with-mean-deviation-from-centre

As you can see the branch has been fetched again. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

Also, as a side note, is there a way for me to check if this branch has already been merged back into master before I delete?

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5
  • 1
    possible duplicate of How do I delete a Git branch both locally and in GitHub? Commented Jul 9, 2013 at 10:47
  • @Livius Hi, yes I referred to this question first, but with no luck Commented Jul 9, 2013 at 10:48
  • “No luck” is not a helpful error report. Also why does your question not state that you tried the solution given there? Commented Jul 9, 2013 at 10:54
  • @Chronial, Well "no luck" in this case is well documented in the question as I give the full command line history... Commented Jul 9, 2013 at 10:57
  • The linked answers explain to use git push. I do not see one git push in your question. Am I missing something? Commented Jul 9, 2013 at 11:25

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
53

To delete a remote branch run following:

git push origin :branch-to-delete

The trick is in colon

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5 Comments

any idea on how to check that this branch has been merged into master before I delete?
git branch --contains that-branch. It will give u list of branches, that contain that branch, If ur branch is in the list, u can delete it.
Tried the above command and get the following: unable to push to unqualified destination: origin/old-state-with-mean-deviation-from-centre The destination refspec neither matches an existing ref on the remote nor begins with refs/
it seems like that branch doesnt exist on the server anymore. U should update ur local branch list. See: stackoverflow.com/questions/3184555/… run this: git remote prune origin
Found the solution, I was typing :origin/old-state... the origin is not needed.
38

The full push command is the following 

git push <remote name> <local branch>:<remote branch>

Just send "no branch at all" to the remote server that way:

git push origin :old-state-with-mean-deviation-from-centre

For the sidenote : git prevents you to delete branch that has not been merged when you use "git branch -d " (and tells you to use -D if you are really sure to delete it anyway).

Also notice the git branch -d -r <branch name> delete the references in your .git folder (and not the real branch located on the remote server), that's why a new fetch will re create it

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3 Comments

Thanks, this has solved the problem. Please can you emphasize that the origin/ qualifier is not needed on the remote branch name as this was making it fail for me.
all what you can do with "branch" command concerns your local repository, i.e. the .git folder. git branch -d -r origin/master concerns the file .git/refs/remotes/origin/master (which contains a sha1) will be deleted, but not the one on the server (because no branch are named "origin/master" which stands for part of the branch name). if you type git push :origin/old-branch it will try to remove the branch "origin/old-branch" (taking origin as a namespace) which does not exists.
There is now a --delete parameter. See my answer.
13

From @Matthew Rankin's answer:

As of Git v1.7.0, you can delete a remote branch using

$ git push <remote_name> --delete <branch_name>
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7

try

git push origin :remote_branch_to_be_deleted
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