Cleanup merged branches from your repository [GIT]

If you are a developer and you contribute and work with a lot of branches, after some time you face the problem of having a lot of dead branches on you local machine. Yes, you can automate this task, just run a simple command and get rid of this painful job by simply remove the merged branches.

If that is your case, what I suggest you to do it’s to add an alias in your bash profile as the following:

1. Open bash profile

$ vi .bash_profile 

2. Add the alias inside vim, in my case I used clean-branch

alias clean-branch='echo Cleaning merged branches && git branch --merged | egrep -v "(^\\*|master|dev)" | xargs git branch -d'

If you look at this command you can find an area having these specification: master|dev. All you need to do to escape a branch from beeing omited by this scrip is to add your branch name in this like for example I have a branch my-branch, the command will become alias clean-branch='echo Cleaning merged branches && git branch --merged | egrep -v "(^\\*|master|dev|my-branch)" | xargs git branch -d'

3. Reset your bash to understand the new command or you can simply open a new terminal

$ source .bash_profile

So that’s it. Now you can open a new terminal or type in the current one your alias command:

$ clean-branch

If you have questions please don’t hesitate to leave me a comment.

Originally published at https://whyboobo.com/tutorials/cleanup-merged-branches-git/