Bash script for deleting local and remote branches that have been merged into master

cleanup_branches.sh

#!/bin/bash

BRANCHES_BEFORE_LOCAL=`git branch -l|wc -l`
BRANCHES_BEFORE_REMOTE=`git branch -r|wc -l`

# Check if we need to pop our changes afterwards
if [ "`git stash save`" == "No local changes to save" ] ; then
	POP_CHANGES="false"
else
	POP_CHANGES="true"
fi

git checkout master && \
git fetch --all --prune && git pull && \
for branch in `git branch |grep -v master|grep -v develop` ; do
	git branch --contains ${branch} | grep '* master' > /dev/null && \
	git branch -d ${branch} ; \
done
for branch in `git branch -r|grep -v master |grep -v develop` ; do
	git branch --contains ${branch} | grep '* master' > /dev/null && \
	git push origin :`echo ${branch}|sed -e 's#origin/##'` ; \
done
git checkout -

if [ "$POP_CHANGES" == "true" ] ; then
	git stash pop
fi

BRANCHES_AFTER_LOCAL=`git branch -l|wc -l`
BRANCHES_AFTER_REMOTE=`git branch -r|wc -l`

echo
echo "Cleanup finished."
echo "Local branches remaining: ${BRANCHES_AFTER_LOCAL}/${BRANCHES_BEFORE_LOCAL}"
echo "Remote branches remaining: ${BRANCHES_AFTER_REMOTE}/${BRANCHES_BEFORE_REMOTE}"

I created this script to make our branch list a bit more manageable. We often forget to delete our merged branches, both locally and remotely, which makes it harder to find the name of that active branch your colleague was working on. This script attempts to remedy that by pruning all branches that have been deleted upstream, and deleting all local and remote branches that have been merged into master, both locally and upstream.

This doesn't address abandoned branches that have never been merged.

For a git command that does more or less the same thing, see https://gist.github.com/jrial/da28757dc07b4bda6ff40774081d4aa0#gistcomment-2884328