`--delete-branch=false` flag does not prevent branch deletion on merge

[hbelkhir]

When merging a pull request from the develop branch into master using the GitHub CLI with the --delete-branch=false flag, the develop branch is still deleted despite this flag being set.

The Automatically delete head branches setting enabled.

Command:

gh pr merge <PR_NUMBER> --repo <owner>/<repo> --match-head-commit $SHA_PULL -t "sync(): develop to master" --body "sync(): develop to master" --merge --admin --delete-branch=false

Expected behavior:
The branch should not be deleted after the merge when --delete-branch=false is specified.

Actual behavior:
The branch is deleted regardless of the --delete-branch=false flag.

[BagToad]

Hi @hbelkhir, thanks for the issue ✨

The --delete-branch is different than the Automatically delete head branches repository setting that I think you're referring to.

The --delete-branch setting will attempt to delete the local branch on your workstation as well, which is the first difference. The second difference being that we make an API call to delete the branch.

In contrast, Automatically delete head branches repository setting occurs entirely on GitHub.com without any client requests being made from gh.

If you want to prevent branch deletion with the Automatically delete head branches repository setting. I recommend either:

• Turn this setting off and manually decide when to delete branches.
• Leave this setting on and use the "restore branch" option from the UI on GitHub if you want a branch to not be deleted on GitHub.com post-merge.

Please let me know if that makes sense or if I misunderstood anything!

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