I actually quite like this syntax for deleting remote branches. You can think of it as a special case of git push $remote $local_commit:$remote_branch whi

I actually quite like this syntax for deleting remote branches. You can think of it as a special case of git push $remote $local_commit:$remote_branch which updates the remote ref $remote_branch so that it points to $local_commit; here it updates the remote ref so that it points to nothing (which means deleting it). Sure, this is inconsistent with other git commands, but it's not completely illogical. Though I'd probably prefer something like git push $remote $remote_branch=$local_commit where the '=' makes you think of assignment, hinting at what this command actually does.