You can then make the changes and, once satisfied, merge them with the main repository without worrying about breaking changes.
However, you may encounter a scenario where you need to delete a remote branch for a specific repository. Let us explore how we can accomplish this in this tutorial.
Git Delete Remote Branch
Git allows you to delete a remote branch using the Git push command followed by the delete option.
The command syntax is provided below:
The –delete option tells Git that you wish the convert the push operation into a delete.
Another syntax passes the target branch, as shown below:
For example, to delete a branch called temp_branch from a remote repository, we can run a command, as shown below:
In our case, we specify the remote branch name as an origin. This will take the specified repository referenced by the name origin and remove the specified branch.
Git Delete Local Branch
In some cases, you may also need to delete a local branch. Luckily a local branch is stored on the local machine, and removing it does not affect the remote branch.
Therefore, to remove a local branch, we can use the Git branch command followed by the -d option. This tells Git to drop the branch with the specified name.
The command syntax is shown below:
The command should remove the branch within the specified repository.
If you have unmerged changes in the target branch, Git will show an error and fail to drop the branch. To discard the changes and drop the branch, use the -f flag as shown in the command below:
Use the -f option carefully, as it will completely discard all the unmerged changes. This action is irreversible.
You can substitute the -f flag with -D, which performs a similar action.
Conclusion
This short article taught you how to remove a remote and local branch from a specific Git repository. Keep in mind that local and remote branches are not related. Hence, removing one does not automatically reflect on the other repository. You need to remove each branch manually.
