Git: How do I list local branches that are tracking remote branches that no longer exist?

Question

How can I list any local branches that appear (as per .git/config) to be tracking remote branches that no longer exist? Remote branches are on GitHub in this ca

Answer 1

If your local branches are tracking the remote branch you can filter the list of branches so show the ones that do not have a tracking branch with:

git branch -vv | grep -v origin

This will provide some extra information about the last commit that is on the branch but you can filter that out

git branch -vv | grep -v origin | awk '{print $1}'

This will only print the name of the branch that isn't tracking a remote branch.

Answer 2

LANG=en git branch --format='%(if:equals=gone)%(upstream:track,nobracket)%(then)%(refname:short)%(end)' | grep '.'

Answer 3

git for-each-ref refs/heads --format='%(refname:short) %(upstream)' \
| awk 'NF==1'

will do it. NF is awk's "number of fields", and its default action is print.

Answer 4

To list your local branches which track deleted remote branches you can use git remote prune --dry-run

For example (assuming your remote repository is named origin):

git fetch
git remote prune origin --dry-run

You can remove the --dry-run option to delete the branches from your local repository