After deleting a branch or amending a commit I still have orphaned objects in the repository: $ mkdir repo; cd repo $ git init $ date > foo; git add foo; git commit -mmsg1 $ date > foo; git add foo; git commit -mmsg2 $ git checkout -b branch-1 HEAD^ Switched to a new branch 'branch-1' $ git commit --allow-empty -mbranch-1 [branch-1 84cfad2] branch-1 $ git log --oneline 84cfad2 branch-1 09fdcb1 msg1 $ find .git/objects/ -type f | sort | nl 1 .git/objects/09/fdcb1cb7d5642874bd642ce5685ac0bebd116c 2 .git/objects/41/d9ceb271c5e72f8a94a38dc4852ab501566bd1 3 .git/objects/4f/c6596065dd08ebc62ce0728e2407d58dbde7e1 4 .git/objects/5f/c4d7af12460d774be720f8761da0be2595404d 5 .git/objects/84/cfad2cea2ae3f7a67530d5c596853f656e68d9 6 .git/objects/a1/5faea60776cd537c4ef527f08caff48ff6c86b 7 .git/objects/c8/c0278da7cf96d86c5881f3884b5015deee7113 These objects are 2 files, 2 trees, and 3 commits. If now delete the branch again, I'd like to have the unneeded commit deleted, but: $ git checkout master Switched to branch 'master' $ git branch -D branch-1 Deleted branch branch-1 (was 84cfad2). $ git reflog expire --all $ git prune $ find .git/objects/ -type f | sort | nl 1 .git/objects/09/fdcb1cb7d5642874bd642ce5685ac0bebd116c 2 .git/objects/41/d9ceb271c5e72f8a94a38dc4852ab501566bd1 3 .git/objects/4f/c6596065dd08ebc62ce0728e2407d58dbde7e1 4 .git/objects/5f/c4d7af12460d774be720f8761da0be2595404d 5 .git/objects/84/cfad2cea2ae3f7a67530d5c596853f656e68d9 <-- [1] 6 .git/objects/a1/5faea60776cd537c4ef527f08caff48ff6c86b 7 .git/objects/c8/c0278da7cf96d86c5881f3884b5015deee7113 Why is [1] not deleted? It seems reflog still knows about the deleted branch, and probably this is the reason git keeps the referenced commit: $ git reflog c8c0278 HEAD@{0}: checkout: moving from branch-1 to master 84cfad2 HEAD@{1}: commit: branch-1 09fdcb1 HEAD@{2}: checkout: moving from master to branch-1 c8c0278 HEAD@{3}: commit: msg2 09fdcb1 HEAD@{4}: commit (initial): msg1 Also, git gc, mentioned in the man page for git-reflog does not help. And I see similar things when amending a commit, where the old commit object is kept. How can one get rid of this? Steve