Feature branches in remote not getting deleted

[Isuru]

I'm having an issue with using git-flow. Not sure if this is the expected behavior so please clarify it for me.

I create an empty repo in Bitbucket and clone it to my local machine. Then I create an Xcode project (I do iOS developing) inside that repo, commit it and push it to Bitbucket.

Then I went ahead and initialzed my local repo to use git flow. I use SourceTree by the way. Then I created a new feature branch, let's call it FirstFeature. I add some files to the project and push it again. Now I have 3 branches in my remote repo; master, develop and FirstFeature.

Then I work on the project again and finish off that feature. The FirstFeature branch gets deleted and merged it with develop locally. Then I proceed to push it to Bitbucket. I thought since the local branch of FirstFeature got deleted, it would get removed when I push the new changes but apparently not. That FirstFeature branch is still there in my Bitbucket repo.

Is this expected behavior or do I need to do something extra to get these removed?

Thank you.

[TimP · Accepted solution]

Hi Isuru,

By default git flow only deletes the local branch for you. You can delete remote branches manually using the syntax:

git push origin :branchname

This StackOverflow thread has a couple of other suggestions that may help.

Hope this helps! 

cheers,

Tim

[Isuru]

Hi Tim, got it. Thank you.

[Isuru]

I found a cool fork called git-flow-avh(https://github.com/petervanderdoes/gitflow) of git-flow that does this remote deletion automatically. I'm gonna use it alongside sourcetree. I also voted up for feature request(https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/SRCTREE-1762) for sourcetree to integrate this fork instead of the original.

[Seth]

In the meantime, you can also delete the remote branch by finding it in the expandable "Remotes" branch list, right-clicking, then "Delete...".