Automatically delete git branch after merge to master

Question

We will be attempting a work flow in github where every ticket is a branch off of master.
After the ticket is complete, the work is merged into staging where regression and integration tests are performed before it is merged into master.

A team lead brought up the issue of the old ticket branches after a merge will start to build up.

I found this script and want to know if this would work in our environment. We only want to delete branches that have been merged into master.

Answer 1

Github has released a feature where anyone with admin permission to the repository can configure branches to get deleted automatically after pull requests are merged. Here are the steps -

1. Navigate to main page of the repository and click on Settings.
2. Under "Merge button", you can select or unselect "Automatically delete head branches" option.

This feature has been released by Github on July 31, 2019.

Answer 2

There's no ready-to-use script for your use case as far as I know. You'll have to create your own tools for that.

There is a tool called git-flow by Vincent Driessen which was built to assist developers following his git workflow described in "A successful Git branching model" .

It's is not as easy as just deleting the branch after merge because you never know if you'll run into a merge conflict or not.

Answer 3

Add either of the following to your .gitconfig file for an easy alias to merge and delete a branch with 1 command.

Alias as a function:

[alias]
  ff = "!f() { git merge $1; git branch -d $1; }; f"

Alias as a new shell command:

[alias]
  ff = !sh -c 'git merge $1 && git branch -d $1' --

They both do the exact same thing, just 2 different methods of doing it.

Answer 4

There is an option in Github UI where repository administrator can configure.

Under "Merge button", select or unselect Automatically delete head branches.

https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/github/administering-a-repository/managing-the-automatic-deletion-of-branches

Answer 5

As far as I know, the best option currently is a GitHub app called delete-merged-branch . It can be easily integrated into a selected repository as an existing app installation, but its source code is also available . This app will automatically delete branches after they have been merged through a PR.

Answer 6

After pull requests are merged, you can have head branches deleted automatically in GitHub :

repository -> settings -> (general) pull requests -> check Automatically delete head branches