git-delete-merged-branches

A convenient command-line tool helping you keep repositories clean.

Installation

# pip install git-delete-merged-branches

If you are using one of the distributions below, you can install git-delete-merged-branches through the respective package manager, e.g.:

Distribution	Command
Arch Linux (AUR)	yay -S git-delete-merged-branches
Debian GNU/Linux (>=bookworm)	apt install git-delete-merged-branches
Gentoo Linux	emerge -av dev-vcs/git-delete-merged-branches
Homebrew	brew install git-delete-merged-branches
MacPorts	port install py-git-delete-merged-branches
NixOS	nix-shell -p git-delete-merged-branches
Ubuntu (>=lunar/23.04)	apt install git-delete-merged-branches
Void Linux	xbps-install -S git-delete-merged-branches

Example

# git-delete-merged-branches
Do you want to run "git remote update --prune" for 1 remote(s):
  - origin

Update? [y/N] y

Do you want to run "git pull --ff-only" for 1 branch(es):
  - master

Pull? [y/N] y

You are about to delete 6 local branch(es):
  - improve-setup-py
  - issue-12-enable-ci-for-pull-requests
  - issue-5-fix-waste-of-one-second-per-service
  - keep-github-actions-up-to-date
  - refactoring-one
  - simple-ci

Delete? [y/N] y

6 local branch(es) deleted.
You are about to delete 6 remote branch(es):
  - origin/improve-setup-py
  - origin/issue-12-enable-ci-for-pull-requests
  - origin/issue-5-fix-waste-of-one-second-per-service
  - origin/keep-github-actions-up-to-date
  - origin/refactoring-one
  - origin/simple-ci

Delete? [y/N] y
To github.com:hartwork/wait-for-it.git
 - [deleted]         improve-setup-py
 - [deleted]         issue-12-enable-ci-for-pull-requests
 - [deleted]         issue-5-fix-waste-of-one-second-per-service
 - [deleted]         keep-github-actions-up-to-date
 - [deleted]         refactoring-one
 - [deleted]         simple-ci

6 remote branch(es) deleted.

Features

• Supports deletion of both local and remote branches
• Detects multiple forms of de-facto merges (rebase merges, squash merges (needs --effort=3), single or range cherry-picks… leveraging git cherry)
• Supports workflows with multiple release branches, e.g. only delete branches that have been merged to all of master, dev and staging
• Quick interactive configuration
• Provider agnostic: Works with GitHub, GitLab, Gitea and any other Git hosting
• Takes safety seriously

Safety

Deletion is a sharp knife that requires care. While git reflog would have your back in most cases, git-delete-merged-branches takes safety seriously.

Here's what git-delete-merged-branches does for your safety:

• No branches are deleted without confirmation or passing --yes.
• Confirmation defaults to "no"; plain [Enter]/[Return] does not delete.
• git push is used with --force-with-lease so if the server and you have a different understanding of that branch, it is not deleted.
• There is no use of os.system or shell code to go wrong.
• With --dry-run you can get a feel for the changes that git-delete-merged-branches would be making to your branches.
• Show any Git commands run using --verbose.

Best Practices

When the repository is a fork (with an upstream remote and a fork remote):

• Make sure that release branches are tracking the right remote, e.g. master should probably track original upstream's master rather than master of your fork.
• Consider keeping your fork's remote master up to date (using git push).

When using GitHub:

• You can make GitHub delete branches of merged pull requests for you, to save git-delete-merged-branches some work on the remote side, if you like.

Name clash on "git-delete-merged-branches" with git-extras

Utility collection git-extras provides a simple shell script named git-delete-merged-branches that competes for command git-delete-merged-branches when both software packages are installed.

To address this conflict you can:

• a) Invoke python3 -m git_delete_merged_branches instead of git-delete-merged-branches
• b) Invoke command git-dmb instead of git-delete-merged-branches
• c) Control path resolution order through environment variable $PATH
• d) Invoke git-delete-merged-branches with its absolute path. You can run which -a git-delete-merged-branches to see where it's located.

Support

Please report any bugs that you find.

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