Re: How to delete a git branch that's not been merged?

[Gerald Pfeifer]

On Tue, 13 Dec 2022, Gerald Pfeifer wrote:
> https://wiki.winehq.org/Git_Wine_Tutorial#Deleting_branches has
>
> Deleting branches
>
> git branch -D new-branch
>
> Alas that does not work for me.
>
> % git branch -a
>   * master
>     remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master
>     remotes/origin/dll_soinit.c-stddef.h
> :
>
> % git branch -D dll_soinit.c-stddef.h
>   error: branch 'dll_soinit.c-stddef.h' not found.

I believe I can now answer my own question, having dug into it a bit.

The invocation above is for *local* branches, branches in the local
checkout.

To remove a *remote* branch, for example where a merge request was not 
accepted or was "bad" for some reason, we need to use `git push` instead 
of `git branch`:

  % git push origin --delete dll_soinit.c-stddef.h

I plan on adding this to the Wiki in a few days. 
Any suggestions/concerns?

Gerald

How to delete a git branch that's not been merged?

[Hin-Tak Leung]

You can just push empty to delete remote branch (note the nothing before ":"):
git push origin :branch_name
The normal push is equivalent to (your current HEAD is branched from remote "branch_name")
git push origin HEAD:branch_name





    On Saturday, 17 December 2022 at 05:51:25 GMT+8, Gerald Pfeifer <gerald(a)pfeifer.com> wrote:  
 
 On Tue, 13 Dec 2022, Gerald Pfeifer wrote:
> https://wiki.winehq.org/Git_Wine_Tutorial#Deleting_branches has
>
>   Deleting branches
>
>   git branch -D new-branch
>
> Alas that does not work for me.
>
>   % git branch -a
>   * master
>     remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master
>     remotes/origin/dll_soinit.c-stddef.h
> :
>
>   % git branch -D dll_soinit.c-stddef.h
>   error: branch 'dll_soinit.c-stddef.h' not found.

I believe I can now answer my own question, having dug into it a bit.

The invocation above is for *local* branches, branches in the local
checkout.

To remove a *remote* branch, for example where a merge request was not 
accepted or was "bad" for some reason, we need to use `git push` instead 
of `git branch`:

  % git push origin --delete dll_soinit.c-stddef.h

I plan on adding this to the Wiki in a few days. 
Any suggestions/concerns?

Gerald