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How to delete all your local branches but keep master

Ben Halpern on April 27, 2019

I find myself searching for this git one-liner a lot, so I figured I'd drop it here to help future searchers: git branch | grep -v "master" | xa...

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lesha 🟨⬛️ • Apr 28 '19

Or better, delete everything merged into master, leaving out branches that can contain work in progress

git branch --merged master | grep -v "master" | xargs git branch -D

James Allen • Apr 27 '19

I was waiting for instructions to rm -fr the project and git clone it again 😉 this is much better!

Anton • Apr 28 '19

rm -rf is such a danger. I heard about how dangerous it is, but was oblivious to its power until I deleted a valuable folder!

Koen van Gilst • Apr 27 '19

And on Windows? 😢

Jakub Leško • Apr 28 '19 • Edited

PowerShell in Windows has slightly different syntax, but you can achieve the same result with the line below :)

git branch | Select-String -NotMatch -Pattern "master" | %{ git branch -D $_.ToString().Trim() }

Koen van Gilst • Apr 28 '19

Thanks, I should definitely look into Powershell a bit more (first time on a contract for a client with a Windows stack)

lesha 🟨⬛️ • Apr 28 '19

I mean, this is cool and all, but PS syntax is too explicit imo

Adil Fulara • Apr 27 '19

Use Linux subsystem 😂

Koen van Gilst • Apr 27 '19

Blocked by the corporate proxy 😢😤

lesha 🟨⬛️ • Apr 28 '19 • Edited

Why though, shouldn't all developers have local admin on workstations?

Or at the very least, shouldn't you be able to request a change in these policies for work-related purposes?

Koen van Gilst • Apr 28 '19

currently downloading using the Microsoft store is blocked by the corporate proxy, but maybe there are other ways to get the Linux Subsystem up and running?

David J Eddy • Apr 29 '19

Set up a forwarder when at home; use it from the office. :)

lesha 🟨⬛️ • Apr 28 '19

Git-scm?

Vinay Hegde • Apr 27 '19

The feeling you've after the command finishes execution

PS: Don't forget to run git checkout master

Sung M. Kim • Apr 28 '19 • Edited

Wow that was perfect as I was deleting about multiple local branches manually!

Left with two and tried that one above and worked fabulously!

buphmin • Apr 27 '19

Just make sure to back up everything first :P

git push --all {remote}

Oh man if I forgot to back up first...that would ruin so many things for me. We have a tendency to re-prioritize things so some branches are left half done for awhile, sometimes many months.

David J Eddy • Apr 29 '19

A handy one indeed @ben . I went one step further and created an alias "git repo cleanup" in my ~/.bash_rc . Keeping a clean local is super helpful when projects get large and dozens of devs have you reviewing / checking / assisting daily.

Khoa Huỳnh • Apr 29 '19

This is awesome!!!

Stephen Chiang • Apr 27 '19

I was just looking for something like this, thanks!

Stephen Chiang • Apr 27 '19

Here's one if you want to keep both master and develop:

> git branch | grep -v "master\|develop" | xargs git branch -D

Ben Halpern • Apr 27 '19

👌

Saurabh Sharma • Apr 28 '19

Is there any way to merge everything in master before deleting?

lesha 🟨⬛️ • Apr 28 '19

It's generally not a good idea. If you finished working on a feature branch, merge it. If a branch isn't merged, it contains work in progress. Work in progress means something isn't working there. Also mass merging often leads to lots of conflicts.

Saurabh Sharma • Apr 29 '19

Oh thanks