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I am using the Git GUI called 'Souretree' by Atlassian and in particular the 'Gitflow' module to manage various branches.

I just created a 'release' branch that I don't want to merge back into either the master or develop branches. How do I get rid of it ? Can I just delete it ? My concern is that I mess up the gitflow config.

I have only made one commit to this branch which i don't care about.

johowie
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3 Answers3

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It seems that I can just delete the branch according to the following sources: Evan Hahn dominiksymonowicz

To quote Evan:

To trash a branch using git-flow , simply delete it like you'd normally delete a Git branch:

git branch -D whatever/branch/you/wanna/delete

Note that this does a forced delete, so anything you did on that branch will be lost. You can be safer with the lowercase -d flag instead.

So using the sourcetree GUI interface i first changed to another branch ( in my case develop) and then simply right clicked on the release branch name in the list of branches in the left hand panel and selected Delete release/releaseName. This gave me the option to do so with as a Force Delete, which in my case was necessary as I wanted to delete the unmerged commits as well.

johowie
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    this doesn't clean the branch remotely. You will notice that if you try to run again `git flow feature start whatever/branch/you/wanna/delete` you will get a "Fatal: Branch 'whatever/branch/you/wanna/delete` already exists. Pick another name" – StLia Nov 06 '17 at 11:39
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    Deleting the branch using raw Git is fine and everything, but it leaves orphaned entries in your local config file. Since there is no "git flow feature delete" I usually issue a "git config --local --edit" and have to manually remove the [gitflow "branch.feature..."] entries I don't want anymore. There is no ill effect leaving them in there, I just don't like the clutter – PillowMetal Aug 15 '20 at 04:06
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I actually wrote the below in a how to article for a development team last week, so I can share it here:

Delete a local branch

git branch -d branch_name

Delete a remote branch

git push origin --delete branch_name

If you don't delete the remote branch then you'll either have a problem when attempting to create a branch with the same name, or you'll leave a branch that needs to be pruned in the future.

Also is it assumed that your remote is called origin, but if different then you'll need to change that above.

John
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To remove the feature branch. First you have to checkout or switch to another branch.. if you at the same branch which you wanted to remove or delete.

  • git checkout <another_branch_name>

after shift to another branch you are ready to remove the feature branch with command

  • git branch -d <Removable_branch_name>
rita mehra
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