Delete Untracked Git Branches

Delete all those annoying untracked local Git branches in one fell swoop.

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Installation
• Usage
  • Options
• Examples
  • Delete All Untracked Branches
  • Checkout a Branch Before Deletion
  • Protect Certain Branches from Deletion
  • Dry Run
• Contributing
• License

Overview

delete-untracked-git-branches is a command-line tool that helps you clean up your local Git repository by deleting branches that are no longer tracked by a remote repository or have been merged. This is particularly useful when you have numerous local branches that are not needed anymore, and you want to delete them quickly without manually checking each one.

Note: Ensure that you don't have any uncommitted changes before running the script, as it might encounter issues or cause data loss.

Installation

You can install delete-untracked-git-branches globally using npm:

npm install -g delete-untracked-git-branches

Alternatively, install it as a development dependency in your project:

npm install --save-dev delete-untracked-git-branches

Or, you can use it without installing by using npx:

npx delete-untracked-git-branches [options]

Usage

The delete-untracked-git-branches script supports the following options:

Options

Option	Alias	Description	Type	Default
--checkout-branch	-c	The branch to checkout before performing the branch deletions.	string
--protected-branches	-p	List of branches to exclude from deletion.	array
--dry-run	-d	Lists untracked branches without deleting them.	boolean	false

Examples

Delete All Untracked Branches

To delete all your untracked branches:

delete-untracked-git-branches

Checkout a Branch Before Deletion

If you want to checkout another branch (e.g., development) before deleting untracked branches:

delete-untracked-git-branches -c development

Protect Certain Branches from Deletion

To protect certain branches (e.g., development and main) from being deleted, pass them as an array by either separating them with spaces, or declaring the flag multiple times:

# Option 1: Space-separated
delete-untracked-git-branches -p development main

# Option 2: Multiple flags
delete-untracked-git-branches -p development -p main

(Note: Comma-separated strings like -p development,main are also supported for backwards compatibility)

Dry Run

To list all untracked branches without deleting them (dry run):

delete-untracked-git-branches -d

This command will display the branches that would be deleted without actually deleting them.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue or submit a pull request on GitHub.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.