How I Git

3 November, 2025

This is basically so I don't forget things.

Pruning branches

I use git branch a lot, to check branch names before switching to them, and I really hate it when the list is clogged up with 20+ old branches. So I regularly run this:

git fetch --prune | git branch -vv | grep ': gone]' | awk '{print $1}' | xargs git branch -d

git fetch --prune - This does everything git fetch does + updates your local branch's remote tracking information.
git branch -vv - First, we list all local branches and their tracking information. The -vv flag provides verbose output; it shows the branch name, its latest commit and the remote branch it tracks.
grep ': gone]' - This grep grabs all the branches that no longer has a remote branch.
awk '{print $1}' - awk processes the text so we can extract parts of it. The we grab the first column of each line which corresponds to the branch name.
xargs git branch -d - Now we pass the branch names to git to delete. If you want to delete branches that aren't fully merged (e.g. local branches that were never pushed) then swap -d for -D.