How to Remove Outdated Local Git Branches

To clean up local Git branches that no longer exist on the upstream repository, you can run these commands.

Update your working copy

To start, make sure your working copy is up to date.

git fetch --prune

The --prune option removes and remote tracking references that no longer exist on the remote repository.

Discover which branches are already merged

By running

git branch

You get a list of all the branches on your working copy. Using the --merged flag, filters that list to show only those branches that are already merged into the main or master branch.

git branch --merged

Delete all merged branches

To delete all the merged branches from your working copy, run this command.

git branch --merged | egrep -v "(^\*|master|main)" | xargs git branch -d

The list of merged branches is piped to an egrep command that eliminates the master or main branch, as we don’t want to delete those. The remaining branch names are pipes to the git branch -d command, which deletes them.

Notes

Whenever I find a command or set of commands online, that purport to accomplish some task, I always break the command down, and execute each stage of it, to make sure I understand what it is doing, and to ensure that it does what the author claims. Trust, but verify.