Using grep and xargs with git to delete multiple branches at once答案

【问题标题】：Using grep and xargs with git to delete multiple branches at onceUsing grep and xargs with git to delete multiple branches at once
【发布时间】：2022-12-02 00:24:08
【问题描述】：

I've been using some of the Linux tooling on my Windows machine for a little while now, since it comes with the git installation and it's a ton of fun to use. I've been particularly enamored with this command, which should theoretically allow me to delete all my extraneous git branches in one go:

git branch | grep -v 'master' | xargs git branch -d

A while ago, however, this stopped working. Instead I get a series of error messages for each branch along the following lines:

error: branch 'extraneous-branch-1?' not found.
error: branch 'extraneous-branch-2?' not found.
error: branch 'extraneous-branch-3?' not found.
...

Note that the question marks are not part of my branch names - those are apparently being added somehow when the values are piped from grep to xargs. When I run xargs in interactive mode to try to see what it's actually producing, I get an output that looks like this:

git branch -d 'extraneous-branch-1'$'\r' 'extraneous-branch-2'$'\r' 'extraneous-branch-3'$'\r' ...

It seems as if grep is piping the end-of-line and carriage-return entries as part of each match, though I don't know how to prevent it from doing that. What baffles me is that I definitely remember this working before - I have no idea what would have changed. Truthfully I know barely anything about the Linux command line tools, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's something obvious I'm overlooking here. Appreciate any advice either way.

Edit

When I run git branch | cat -A, I get the following result:

 extraneous-branch-1$
 extraneous-branch-2$
 extraneous-branch-3$

【问题讨论】：

Can you show output of git branch | cat -A ?
Interesting. I'll update my post with the results I got.
It's not + cat, it's pipe: |. Fixed.
ok now try: git branch | command grep -vF 'master' | cat -A
Ah rats, it appears I don't have command - when I try that I get 'command' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

标签： bash git cmd grep xargs

【解决方案1】：

Thanks to anubhava for pointing me in the right direction here. It appears grep is returning a bunch of non-printing characters that are visible when you run git branch | cat -A. It turns out just adding cat in there eliminates all those characters. Now it works perfectly.

git branch | grep -v master | cat | xargs git branch -d

a bit more verbose than before, but I'm not complaining.

【讨论】：