Git Delete Local Branch and Remote Branch (With Force Delete)

1. Overview

In this tutorial, We'll learn how to delete the local branch and remote branch in git with normal and force delete options.

Git provides easy access and manages the git local branches. And also provides exceptional support to remove local branches without any exception.

Removing git local branches can be done in two ways and removing remote repo in one way with commands.

let us look one by one now.

It is very useful to know Git Commands.

2. Git Remove Local Brach With -d option (d for normal or soft delete)

Git provides the useful command to work with the local branch deletion.

Git Delete local branch command syntax

git branch -d <branch-name>

This command deletes the branch completely from the local machine but does not remove the branch from the remote location.

Sometimes, you may get the error "error: cannot delete branch" as below.

Kotlin-Demo venkateshn$ git branch -d demo
error: Cannot delete branch 'demo' checked out at '/Users/Documents/workspace/git-demo/Kotlin-Demo'

To avoid "cannot delete branch" error, you need to switch to the master branch first and then run the git branch -d command with the delete branch name.

After deleting the branch, you can not see the deleted branch on local but not deleted on the remote.

mac-MacBook-Pro-2:Kotlin-Demo $ git branch
* demo
  master
mac-MacBook-Pro-2:Kotlin-Demo $ git branch -d demo
error: Cannot delete branch 'demo' checked out at '/Users//workspace/git-demo/Kotlin-Demo'
mac-MacBook-Pro-2:Kotlin-Demo $ git branch -D demo
error: Cannot delete branch 'demo' checked out at '/Users//workspace/git-demo/Kotlin-Demo'
mac-MacBook-Pro-2:Kotlin-Demo $ git checkout master
Switched to branch 'master'
Your branch is up to date with 'origin/master'.
mac-MacBook-Pro-2:Kotlin-Demo $ git branch -d demo
Deleted branch demo (was f984e75).
mac-MacBook-Pro-2:Kotlin-Demo $ git branch
* master
mac-MacBook-Pro-2:Kotlin-Demo $ git branch -r
  origin/HEAD -> origin/master
  origin/demo
  origin/master
mac-MacBook-Pro-2:Kotlin-Demo $ 

How to unstage the file from git in two ways?

3. Git Force Delete Local Branch with Option -D

Sometimes, if you have some committed changes on your local branch but those are not on remote or vice versa.

In such cases, git will not allow deleting these branches with the "git branch -d" option. Because the local branch is not in sync with the remote branch. This is a legal and legitimate use case.

If you are sure about these changes are not needed for the future and you want to remove the branch on local then you need to mention to the git delete forcibly.

This is informed the git with hyphen D option (-D) on git branch command.

Syntax

git chekout master
git branch -D <branch-name>

Example

MacBook-Pro-2:Kotlin-Demo $ git branch
* demo
  master
MacBook-Pro-2:Kotlin-Demo $ touch dummy.txt 
MacBook-Pro-2:Kotlin-Demo $ echo "this is a dummy file">>dummy.txt
MacBook-Pro-2:Kotlin-Demo $ cat dummy.txt 
this is a dummy file
MacBook-Pro-2:Kotlin-Demo $ git checkout master
Switched to branch 'master'
Your branch is up to date with 'origin/master'.

MacBook-Pro-2:Kotlin-Demo $ git branch -d demo
error: The branch 'demo' is not fully merged.
If you are sure you want to delete it, run 'git branch -D demo'.

MacBook-Pro-2:Kotlin-Demo $ git branch -D demo
Deleted branch demo (was a0d3b53).
MacBook-Pro-2:Kotlin-Demo $ git branch
* master
MacBook-Pro-2:Kotlin-Demo $

4. How to undo Deleted Local Branch

If you want to get the deleted local branch again back to your machine, then the original copy is available in the remote git repository.

You have to follow the below steps. But remote copy may not be the same if you unpushed commits on your deleted local branch.

git pull
git checkout <branch-name>

Example

MacBook-Pro-2:Kotlin-Demo $ git pull
Already up to date.
MacBook-Pro-2:Kotlin-Demo $ git checkout demo
Branch 'demo' set up to track remote branch 'demo' from 'origin'.
Switched to a new branch 'demo'
MacBook-Pro-2:Kotlin-Demo $ git branch
* demo
  master
MacBook-Pro-2:Kotlin-Demo $ 

5. Git Delete Remote Branch

Sometimes you need to delete the branch from the remote repository. In that case, the git branch -d option does not do the job.

So, we need to use the git push command with the --delete option.

Syntax

git push origin --delete <remote-branch-name>

Example

We can see the remote branch on GitHub before removal.

MacBook-Pro-2:Kotlin-Demo $ git branch
* demo
  master
MacBook-Pro-2:Kotlin-Demo $ git push origin --delete demo
To https://github.com/JavaProgramTo/Kotlin-Demo.git
 - [deleted]         demo
MacBook-Pro-2:Kotlin-Demo $ 

Now the branch demo is deleted from the remote repo and verified on the remote. 

Look at the below image after git removed the remote branch.

6. Conclusion

In this article, We've seen how to remove branches locally and remote from the git repository.

[Fixed ]Git - filename too long