git-delete-merged-branches

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

Installation

console
# 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

console
# 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.