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I created a branch in git to work on my feature (branch called my_branch). I pushed my changes to the branch and then rebased the branch onto master. My company uses git rebase and not git merge.

I ran the following commands:

git checkout master
git rebase master my_branch
git checkout master     (seems like I somehow got switched to my_branch so had to switch back to master)
git merge --ff-only my_branch
git log                 (made sure my code is now in master)
git push origin master

When I try to clean up and delete my local branch, it gives a warning that it's not yet merged to refs/remote/origin/my_branch.

# git branch -d my_branch
warning: not deleting branch 'my_branch' that is not yet merged to
         'refs/remotes/origin/my_branch', even though it is merged to HEAD.
error: The branch 'my_branch' is not fully merged.
If you are sure you want to delete it, run 'git branch -D my_branch'.

(please forgive any typos from sanitizing the above message)

When I check our git repo thru my browser and check the branches, I can see my latest code/check-in in "my_branch". I can also see my code in the master branch too.

Why is git complaining that "my_branch" is not fully merged? Can I delete my local branch safely or is git pointing to changes in "my_branch" that will disappear once I delete it locally? If I delete the branch remotely too, will that affect anything?

Classified
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  • Note that the question "is (branch X / commit Y) merged" is really only *half* a question, rather like "is Fred the son of?" Yes, he's the son of someone. No, he's not the son of Indira. That's why Git generates this rather verbose thing: it's merged with/to thing A, but not with/to thing B. The `-d` (lowercase, unforced) delete applies various safety tests; whether those are the safety tests *you* want depends on your usage. – torek Apr 13 '22 at 04:34

1 Answers1

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You're missing a step in the process: after you rebase your topic branch (my_branch), you need to force-push it to update it on your remote.

  1. git checkout master
  2. git rebase master my_branch
    • it's the expected behavior that this checks out my_branch in order to perform the rebase
  3. git push --force-with-lease origin my_branch
    • rebasing rewrites the history of my_branch, so pushing it requires a force push
    • I edited my answer to make this --force-with-lease instead of just --force.
  4. git checkout master
  5. git merge --ff-only
  6. git push origin master

Git is complaining about the fact that my_branch is "not fully merged" with its remote branch (origin/my_branch), because the local and remote branches have diverged in history. It's not complaining about it being fully merged with master.

All that being said - you're actually fine to delete the branch, even with the warning. It won't have any negative effects. Git is just warning you that you're deleting a branch that's not up to date with its remote.

TonyArra
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