Remove stale remote-tracking references.
Git: Fetch with prune removes tracking references for branches no longer present on the remote.
set -euo pipefail
git fetch -q --prune origin
git branch -r --format="%(refname:short)"Expected output EXAMPLE
origin/main
Details
Requires Git and Bash. Run in a disposable practice repository. The test setup below creates the starting files and commits. Fetch with prune removes tracking references for branches no longer present on the remote. The input setup creates a disposable practice repository with a fictional local author identity. Run these examples only in that repository.
Tested on Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS · · git version 2.43.0 · git 1:2.43.0-1ubuntu7.3
Test inputs, results and environment
The exact published code ran in a dedicated Linux test container with prepared inputs. Snippet process uid 65534 with a read-only root filesystem and temporary working files. Networking disabled. Fixtures and output records are isolated from the application database. Testing covers this example and its stated checks, not every input, operating system, or runtime version. The Linux container shares its host's kernel; this is not a native Windows test.
- Architecture / host kernel
- x86_64 / 6.18.54.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2
- Snippet identity / locale
- uid=65534, gid=65534 (unprivileged process) / C.UTF-8
- Interpreter invocation
bash -euo pipefail -c <published code>- Container image ID
sha256:ec91410a8f6ec3e985830b5e3a0560306d36f8c1c5ccd91a6699abe707123fa3- Code SHA-256
1c6661b2621a2804718c61e00eda855f408f2e5eedfe1c1958ec73f61ebcd037- Dependencies
- git 1:2.43.0-1ubuntu7.3
Test input setup
These are the prepared inputs used by the test harness. See Details above for the prerequisites and how to run this example.
git init -q -b main git config user.name 'Example Developer' git config user.email 'developer@example.invalid' git config commit.gpgsign false git config tag.gpgsign false git config color.ui false printf 'first ' > note.txt git add note.txt git commit -qm 'Initial notes' git init -q --bare --initial-branch=main remote.git git remote add origin ./remote.git git push -q -u origin main git branch temporary; git push -q origin temporary; git --git-dir=remote.git branch -D temporary >/dev/null
Observed standard output
origin/main
Exit code: 0. Standard error: empty. Validation: Exact stdout comparison. System-dependent values above are one recorded run.