Just looking at old local branches. They tend to proliferate, especially if you have a release cadence.
To list the local branches (the default), or list the branches according to a pattern, see the two examples directly below.
git branch --list "V2022*"
Small explanation of the output of the command:
- existing branches are listed
- the current branch will be highlighted in green and marked with an asterisk
- any branches checked out in linked worktrees will be highlighted in cyan and marked with a plus sign
I'm usually only interested in local branches, but "-r" shows remote-tracking branches and "-a" shows both remote and local branches, if you're interested.
Removing branches
Bear in mind that branches that are used by a worktree cannot be deleted. Remove the worktree first.
Actually, I really like that behaviour.
Checking old branches
Apparently you can sort the list of branches based on last comitterdate.
In the example above, you'll see branches that have been committed to recently at the top.
Finding a commit
This is nice, you can find which branches contain a certain commit quickly.
Unfortunately, we're currently using git as a local repo, and svn remote, so there's a disconnect between commit hashes.
References
- Git - git branch documentation
- https://git-scm.com/docs/git-branch
- StackOverflow - Can you delete multiple branches in one command with Git?
- https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3670355/can-you-delete-multiple-branches-in-one-command-with-git
