Why can't I delete a remote git branch with git push origin :branchname?
git
Solution
The branch has already been deleted in the origin repository. You can reflect this in your local remotes when you fetch by doing `git fetch --all --prune`, which will delete it from your remotes. You can also more specifically do `git remote prune` to just prune your remotes without updating.
Problem
When I try to push to a remote git branch to delete it with `git push origin :branchname` I get the following error message: error: unable to push to unqualified destination: remotes/origin/branchname The destination refspec neither matches an existing ref on the remote nor begins with refs/, and we are unable to guess a prefix based on the source ref. But when I type `git branch -a` I still see it in `remotes/origin/branchname`. Why can't I delete it remotely?