How can I delete the current Git branch?

Question

I have a branch called Test_Branch. When I try to delete it using the recommend method, I get the following error:

Cannot delete branch 'Test_Branch' checked out at '[directory location]'.

I get no other information besides that. I can blow away the remote branch easy but the local branch won't go away.

In picture, this is what is happening: http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/pictures/10000/velka/1210-1240955295Hn8Q.jpg — coredump, Jan 05 '17 at 18:39
The star tells you which branch you are currently in, this confirms what the answers say — coredump, Jan 05 '17 at 18:48
Tutorial https://makandracards.com/makandra/621-git-delete-a-branch-local-or-remote can help you in this problem — Mihai8, Oct 02 '18 at 19:10

Arpit Aggarwal · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-05T18:45:14.587

483

Switch to some other branch and delete Test_Branch, as follows:

$ git checkout master
$ git branch -d Test_Branch

If above command gives you error - The branch 'Test_Branch' is not fully merged. If you are sure you want to delete it and still you want to delete it, then you can force delete it using -D instead of -d, as:

$ git branch -D Test_Branch

To delete Test_Branch from remote as well, execute:

git push origin --delete Test_Branch

edited Jan 05 '17 at 18:45

answered Jan 05 '17 at 18:37

Arpit Aggarwal

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**Switching branches** was what got me - good catch! You can't delete the branch if you are active in it. ;-) – SliverNinja - MSFT Jul 04 '17 at 14:35
11

If you try a few different checkouts and still get the same message, look at the output of `git status`, or `git branch`; if you are rebasing Test_branch then simply checking out a different branch/commit will not fix this. Instead `git rebase --abort` then `git checkout --detach` and finally `git branch -D Test_branch` – droid Jul 07 '17 at 21:16
6

Further evidence that **git** stands for **"git is terrible".** The more I use it the more of these ridiculous hoops you have to jump through. Especially since you probably want to switch right back to the same branch. – user949300 Mar 10 '18 at 22:10
And what if someone gets this in return, when trying to change branches? `error: you need to resolve your current index first` and they just want to LEAVE? EDIT - Solution: `git reset --`; `git checkout -D [branch_name]` Phew.. – Paul Oct 13 '18 at 00:22
Had to do run `git fetch --prune` because I had already deleted the branch on remote but it was still showing up after `git pull` in `git branch -a`. – hipokito Aug 27 '20 at 11:49
`git checkout -b main` write `-b` flag for creating a new branch. – Rahul Bali Jul 14 '22 at 21:21

score 33 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 13 '17 at 23:56

33

Ran into this today and switching to another branch didn't help. It turned out that somehow my worktree information had gotten corrupted and there was a worktree with the same folder path as my working directory with a HEAD pointing at the branch (git worktree list). I deleted the .git/worktree/ folder that was referencing it and git branch -d worked.

answered Sep 13 '17 at 23:56

jinxcat2008

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This answer should be the accepted answer in my opinion, because when I encountered the error the simple `git branch -D` solution did not work for me - the error was persistent. – Doron Behar Aug 18 '23 at 09:38

score 26 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 05 '17 at 18:38

26

You probably have Test_Branch checked out, and you may not delete it while it is your current branch. Check out a different branch, and then try deleting Test_Branch.

answered Jan 05 '17 at 18:38

Randy Leberknight

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score 17 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 08 '23 at 08:21

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If you have created multiple worktrees with git worktree, you'll need to run git worktree prune before you can delete the branch

edited Mar 08 '23 at 08:21

clemlatz

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answered Dec 05 '17 at 14:26

dkniffin

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more specifically, you will need to use `git worktree prune` – Sergioet Aug 09 '18 at 14:57
but read what git prune does, first - could lead to data loss – sesquipedalias Apr 22 '19 at 12:46
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Rather than using `git worktree prune`, I would suggest using `git worktree remove ` to be sure that you do not delete more work-tree information than you need to. If you have doubts, read the documentation that is output from this command: `git help worktree` – Daryl Odnert May 03 '21 at 18:38

Fermat's Little Student · Answer 5 · 2023-01-09T19:03:16.530

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I had a similar problem except that the bad branch was in the middle of rebase.
git checkout bad_branch && git rebase --abort solved my issue.

edited Jan 09 '23 at 19:03

answered Sep 06 '22 at 03:04

Fermat's Little Student

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score 7 · Answer 6 · edited Oct 02 '21 at 00:51

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In my case there were uncommitted changes from the previous branch lingering around. I used following commands and then delete worked.

git checkout *    
git checkout master
git branch -D <branch name>

edited Oct 02 '21 at 00:51

ggorlen

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answered Sep 06 '19 at 12:23

Sankar Natarajan

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score 7 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 25 '23 at 07:58

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If any of the other answers did not work for you, this can also happen if you are in the middle of a rebase. So either finish the rebase or abort it:

git rebase --abort

Afterward, you can remove the branch.

answered Jan 25 '23 at 07:58

Guy s

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score 5 · Answer 8 · answered May 18 '21 at 10:05

5

Most junior programmers that faced

Cannot delete branch 'my-branch-name'

Because they are already on that branch.

It's not logical to delete the branch that you are already working on it.

Just switch to another branch like master or dev and after that delete the branch that you want:

git checkout dev

git branch -d my-branch-name

without force delete, you can delete that branch

answered May 18 '21 at 10:05

Raskul

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Most junior programmers make better error messages than "Cannot delete branch" – William Entriken Jun 26 '21 at 01:16
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Though to be fair - the message is "Cannot delete branch ... checked out at ...". "checked out" is the proper way to describe "being on that branch" – JanErikGunnar Nov 18 '21 at 09:30

score 5 · Answer 9 · answered Sep 12 '21 at 11:52

If you run into this problem where you have checkedout and not able to delete the branch and getting this error message

"error: Cannot delete branch 'issue-123' checked out at ....."

Then check the branch you are currently in by using git branch

If the branch you are trying to delete is your current branch, you cannot delete the same. Just switch to the main or master or any other branch and then try deleting

git checkout main or master

git branch -d branchname git branch -D branchname git branch -D branchname --force

score 5 · Answer 10 · answered Feb 21 '23 at 18:57

5

In my case, I had a bisect I guess I didn't reset. Switching to the offending branch, running git bisect reset, and then switching to a different branch allowed the offending branch to then be deleted.

answered Feb 21 '23 at 18:57

badambassador

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score 3 · Answer 11 · answered Oct 02 '18 at 19:08

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This worked for me...
I have removed the folders there in .git/worktrees folder and then tried "git delete -D branch-name".

answered Oct 02 '18 at 19:08

Vasu

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Ger Hobbelt · Answer 12 · 2021-04-03T18:06:02.707

Ran into this problem today for branches reported by git branch -a and look like this one: remotes/coolsnake/dev, i.e. a local references to "remote" branches in registered git remote add ... remotes.

When you try

git branch -d remotes/coolsnake/dev

you'll get the error: branch 'remotes/coolsnake/dev' not found.

The magic is to remember here that these are references and MUST be deleted via

git update-ref -d remotes/coolsnake/dev

(as per https://superuser.com/questions/283309/how-to-delete-the-git-reference-refs-original-refs-heads-master/351085#351085)

Took a while to uncover my mistake and only the fact that TortoiseGit could do it led me on the right path when I was stuck. Google DID NOT deliver anything useful despite several different approaches. (No that I've found what I needed there's also git: How to delete a local ref branch?, which did NOT show up as I had forgotten the 'ref' bit about these branches being references.)

Hope this helps someone else to get unstuck when they're in the same boat as me, trying to filter/selectively remove branches in a repo where some of them are present due to previous git remote add commands.

In a shell script this then might look like this:

#! /bin/bash
#
# Remove GNU/cesanta branches so we cannot accidentally merge or cherrypick from them!
# 

# commit hash is first GNU commit
R=218428662e6f8d30a83cf8a89f531553f1156d25

for f in $( git tag -l ; git branch -a ) ; do 
    echo "$f"
    X=$(git merge-base $R "$f" ) 
    #echo "X=[$X]" 
    if test "$X" = "$R" ; then 
        echo GNU 
        git branch -D "$f" 
        git update-ref -d "refs/$f" 
        git tag -d "$f" 
        #git push origin --delete "$f" 
    else 
        echo CIVETWEB 
    fi
done

score 2 · Answer 13 · answered Aug 01 '22 at 10:20

2

ran into same problem, checked out to different branch and used git branch -D branch_name worked for me

answered Aug 01 '22 at 10:20

Toxic Xander

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score 1 · Answer 14 · answered Jul 11 '19 at 17:27

Like others mentioned you cannot delete current branch in which you are working.

In my case, I have selected "Test_Branch" in Visual Studio and was trying to delete "Test_Branch" from Sourcetree (Git GUI). And was getting below error message.

Cannot delete branch 'Test_Branch' checked out at '[directory location]'.

Switched to different branch in Visual Studio and was able to delete "Test_Branch" from Sourcetree.

I hope this helps someone who is using Visual Studio & Sourcetree.

score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Apr 22 '23 at 17:44

badambassador's answer mentions the case of a git bisect in-progress in a worktree.

One reason a git bisect can remain incomplete is because it remains stuck on a commit needing to check out a branch in a worktree... while that same branch is also checked out in another worktree.

To avoid that scenario, you can use a new option with Git 2.41 (Q2 2023), which allows "git bisect reset"^(man) to check out the original branch when the branch is already checked out in a different worktree linked to the same repository.

See commit 7fb8904 (22 Jan 2023) by Rubén Justo (rjusto).
^{(Merged by Junio C Hamano -- gitster -- in commit c79786c, 19 Mar 2023)}

bisect: fix "reset" when branch is checked out elsewhere

^{Signed-off-by: Rubén Justo}

Since 1d0fa89 ("checkout: add --ignore-other-wortrees", 2015-01-03, Git v2.5.0-rc0 -- merge listed in batch #2) we have a safety valve in checkout/switch to prevent the same branch from being checked out simultaneously in multiple worktrees.

If a branch is bisected in a worktree while also being checked out in another worktree; when the bisection is finished, checking out the branch back in the current worktree may fail.

Let's teach bisect to use the "--ignore-other-worktrees" flag.

So you can now do a git bisect reset --ignore-other-worktrees (to clean up the current bisect), and then change branches to allow the deletion of the current branch in the main repository.

score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Aug 22 '23 at 18:56

0

First you need to checkout other branch

git chekcout master

and then delete the required branch

git branch -d Test_Branch

answered Aug 22 '23 at 18:56

Sunil

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score -2 · Answer 17 · answered Oct 31 '22 at 06:15

-2

git branch --D branch-name

Please run this code to delete

answered Oct 31 '22 at 06:15

Mubashar Hussain

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How can I delete the current Git branch?

17 Answers17

`bisect`: fix "`reset`" when branch is checked out elsewhere

Linked

Related

How can I delete the current Git branch?

17 Answers17

bisect: fix "reset" when branch is checked out elsewhere

Linked

Related

`bisect`: fix "`reset`" when branch is checked out elsewhere