# How to get rid of tracking branch?

3 messages from 2007-02-14 to 2007-02-14. Participants: Johannes Sixt, Andy Parkins, Junio C Hamano.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/6815

## Johannes Sixt, 2007-02-14 13:24

Subject: How to get rid of tracking branch?
Message-ID: <45D30D8F.50261DB0@eudaptics.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/45D30D8F.50261DB0%40eudaptics.com

```
Call me clueless, but how the heck do I get rid of a tracking remote
branch? I've cloned a repo locally, but in the clone I don't want to
track all the topic branches of the origin. But git branch -d keeps
saying it doesn't find the remote branch:

$ git version
git version 1.5.0
$ git clone mingw-git/ mingw-git2
[... all looks fine ...]
$ cd mingw-git2/
$ git branch -a
* devel
  origin/HEAD
  origin/devel
  origin/master
  origin/origin
  origin/repo-devel
$ git branch -d origin/repo-devel
error: branch 'origin/repo-devel' not found.
$ git branch -d remotes/origin/repo-devel
error: branch 'remotes/origin/repo-devel' not found.
$ git branch -d heads/remotes/origin/repo-devel
error: branch 'heads/remotes/origin/repo-devel' not found.
$ git branch -d refs/heads/remotes/origin/repo-devel
error: branch 'refs/heads/remotes/origin/repo-devel' not found.


How do I delete remote branches? Do I have to

 rm .git/refs/heads/remotes/origin/repo-devel

(I know I have to update the config, too, so that the next pull doesn't
draw the branch in again, but I haven't done that at this point.)

-- Hannes

```

## Andy Parkins, 2007-02-14 13:35

Subject: Re: How to get rid of tracking branch?
Message-ID: <200702141335.41165.andyparkins@gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/200702141335.41165.andyparkins%40gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <45D30D8F.50261DB0@eudaptics.com>

```
On Wednesday 2007 February 14 13:24, Johannes Sixt wrote:
> Call me clueless, but how the heck do I get rid of a tracking remote
> branch? I've cloned a repo locally, but in the clone I don't want to
> track all the topic branches of the origin. But git branch -d keeps
> saying it doesn't find the remote branch:

 $ git branch -r -d origin/repo-devel

I suffered the same thing a while ago :-)


Andy
-- 
Dr Andy Parkins, M Eng (hons), MIEE
andyparkins@gmail.com

```

## Junio C Hamano, 2007-02-14 17:04

Subject: Re: How to get rid of tracking branch?
Message-ID: <7vsld8r7px.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/7vsld8r7px.fsf%40assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net
In-Reply-To: <200702141335.41165.andyparkins@gmail.com>

```
Andy Parkins <andyparkins@gmail.com> writes:

> On Wednesday 2007 February 14 13:24, Johannes Sixt wrote:
>> Call me clueless, but how the heck do I get rid of a tracking remote
>> branch? I've cloned a repo locally, but in the clone I don't want to
>> track all the topic branches of the origin. But git branch -d keeps
>> saying it doesn't find the remote branch:
>
>  $ git branch -r -d origin/repo-devel
>
> I suffered the same thing a while ago :-)

I think you would also need to futz with remote.origin.fetch
that says "track all branches from remote", or your next pull
will re-create them.

You probably have

	[remote "origin"]
        	url = ...
                fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
	[branch "master"]
        	remote = origin
                merge = refs/heads/master

You would change it to list the branch you want to track
explicitly:

	[remote "origin"]
        	url = ...
                fetch = refs/heads/master:refs/remotes/origin/master

However, this has a subtle side effect.  If you create a new
branch, say "test", running "git pull" while on "test" will
merge "master".  This is not wrong per-se (it has been the
traditional git-pull behaviour and if you want to use the remote
branch that is not the one first listed on remote.origin.fetch
line, you can set up branch.test.merge yourself), but it may
surprise you because it is different when you use the globbing
refspec on the remote.origin.fetch line.

So if you want to track only two remote branches, say 'master'
and 'dev', and if you want to also have your own 'master' and
'dev' that builds on them, you would have something like:

	[remote "origin"]
        	url = ...
                fetch = refs/heads/master:refs/remotes/origin/master
                fetch = refs/heads/dev:refs/remotes/origin/dev
	[branch "master"]
        	remote = origin
                merge = refs/heads/master
	[branch "dev"]
        	remote = origin
                merge = refs/heads/dev

Then while on 'master', "git pull" will fetch from origin and
merge their 'master' in, and while on 'dev' "git pull" will
merge their 'dev' in.

```