'git branch -av' showing remote branch that no longer exists

Question

This is probably a dumb question, but I'm brand new to git and am seeing a remote branch that no longer exists.

$ git branch -a
* master
  remotes/origin/master
  remotes/origin/production

I don't believe the production branch exists remotely and can't figure out why it still shows locally. How can I delete/remove this branch? Here's what an attempt to remove it looks like:

$ git push origin :production

error: unable to push to unqualified destination: production
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@IP:puppet.git'

I can checkout the supposedly remote production branch but get this:

$ git checkout origin/production
Note: checking out 'origin/production'.

You are in 'detached HEAD' state. You can look around, make experimental
changes and commit them, and you can discard any commits you make in this
state without impacting any branches by performing another checkout.

If you want to create a new branch to retain commits you create, you may
do so (now or later) by using -b with the checkout command again. Example:

  git checkout -b new_branch_name

HEAD is now at c323996... added powerdns module, no really

I have no clue what the heck I'm doing. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

You have to do:

git remote prune origin