How to delete branches

How to delete a local git branch:

git branch -d the_local_branch

Hot to delete a remote branch

git push origin :the_remote_branch

Do you get an error?
error: unable to push to unqualified destination: theremotebranch
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.
error: failed to push some refs to 'git@repository_name'

Perhaps anyone else has already deleted the branch. try to synchronize your branch list with

git fetch -p

The git manual says

-p, --prune<br/>
After fetching, remove any remote-tracking branches which no longer exist on the remote.