Tidying up local branches with a Git Alias and a PowerShell Script

It is easy to get your local branches in Git out of sync with the upstream repository, leaving old dead branches locally that you can’t remember creating. You can use the prune option on your Git Fetch command to remove the remote branch references, but that command does nothing to remove local branches.

A good while ago, I wrote a small PowerShell script to wrapper the running of the Git Fetch and then based on the deletions remove any matching local branches. Then finally returning me to my trunk branch.

Note: This script was based on some sample I found, but I can’t remember where to give credit, sorry.

I used to just run this command from the command line, but I recently thought it would be easier if it became a Git Alias. As Git Aliases run a bash shell, this meant I needed to shell out to PowerShell 7. Hence, my Git Config ended up being as shown below

[user]
        name = Richard Fennell
        email = richard@blackmarble.co.uk
[filter "lfs"]
        required = true
        clean = git-lfs clean -- %f
        smudge = git-lfs smudge -- %f
        process = git-lfs filter-process
[init]
        defaultBranch = main
[alias]
        tidy = !pwsh.exe C:/Users/fez/OneDrive/Tools/Remove-DeletedGitBranches.ps1 -force

I can just run 'git tidy’ and all my branches get sorted out.