I use the sync subcommand of hub to automate this. I have alias git=hub in my .bash_profile, so the command I type is:
git sync
This updates all local branches that have a matching upstream branch. From the man page:
- If the local branch is outdated, fast-forward it;
- If the local branch contains unpushed work, warn about it;
- If the branch seems merged and its upstream branch was deleted, delete it.
It also handles stashing/unstashing uncommitted changes on the current branch.
I used to use a similar tool called git-up, but it’s no longer maintained, and git sync does almost exactly the same thing.