How do I delete a Git branch both locally and in Github?

Question

I created a bugfix branch to fix a bug on a project that I had forked on Github. I gave a pull request to the developer to incorporate my fix, but the developer decided to implement a different fix for the problem. At this point, I want to delete the bugfix branch both locally and on my project fork on Github.

Successfully Deleted Local Branch

$ git branch -D bugfix
Deleted branch bugfix (was 2a14ef7).

Attempts to Delete Remote Branch

$ git branch -d remotes/origin/bugfix
error: branch 'remotes/origin/bugfix' not found.
$ git branch -d origin/bugfix
error: branch 'origin/bugfix' not found.
$ git branch -rd origin/bugfix
Deleted remote branch origin/bugfix (was 2a14ef7).
$ git push
Everything up-to-date
$ git pull
From github.com:gituser/gitproject
 * [new branch]         bugfix  -> origin/bugfix
Already up-to-date.

What do I need to do differently to successfully delete the branch remotes/origin/bugfix both locally and on Github? Thanks.

Preliminary Research / Related StackOverflow Questions

• StackOverflow Question 1072171: How do you Remove an Invalid Remote Branch Reference from Git?
• Pro Git by Scott Chacon: Contains the answer along with the note "You may want to dog-ear this page, because you’ll need that command, and you’ll likely forget the syntax." Yep, that's me; I forgot the syntax. I'll post the answer in case others have this same question and for when I forget this syntax again. :-)

Answer 1

From Chapter 3 of Pro Git by Scott Chacon:

Deleting Remote Branches

Suppose you’re done with a remote branch — say, you and your collaborators are finished with a feature and have merged it into your remote’s master branch (or whatever branch your stable codeline is in). You can delete a remote branch using the rather obtuse syntax git push [remotename] :[branch]. If you want to delete your serverfix branch from the server, you run the following:

$ git push origin :serverfix
To [email protected]:schacon/simplegit.git
 - [deleted]         serverfix

Boom. No more branch on your server. You may want to dog-ear this page, because you’ll need that command, and you’ll likely forget the syntax. A way to remember this command is by recalling the git push [remotename] [localbranch]:[remotebranch] syntax that we went over a bit earlier. If you leave off the [localbranch] portion, then you’re basically saying, “Take nothing on my side and make it be [remotebranch].”

I issued git push origin :bugfix and it worked beautifully. Scott Chacon was right—I will want to dog ear that page (or virtually dog ear by answering this on StackOverflow).