delete-merged-branches.md

Delete Merged Branches

The GitHub workflow can create a lot of branches in your git history. After merging a local branch, delete it using git branch -d <branch name>. When there are lots of local branches to delete, use the following command:

In bash or zsh:

git branch --merged | egrep --invert-match "^\*|main" | xargs git branch -d

Following a similar process in PowerShell:

git branch --merged |
Select-String -NotMatch "^\*|main" |
Foreach-Object{$_.ToString().Trim()} |
Foreach-Object{Invoke-Expression "git branch -d $_"}

Discussion

The bash version works in macOS and the PowerShell version works on Windows. Git must be installed on the Windows computer. The primary branch is named main.

References

More on this method and how to clean up remote branches here.