Rift Valley Institute website functional specifications

23 September 2013

Git Flowsmart branching model

Evans M.evans@weareasilia.comwww.weareasilia.com

#git #gitflow #codemanagement

Git Flow - smart branching model

About

• A recommended approach of using git branches in development lifecycle.

• Idea is to standardize branching and merging when

• developing features,

• handling releases and

• managing hot fixes

• Objective is to be consistent and gain advantages of git’s branch development model.

What – Git branching modelFor – Branching strategy and release management

Git Flow - smart branching model

• Keep repository tidier

• Clearer devops (development + operations) procedures

• Move between projects more easily with familiar branch structures

• Get new developers up to speed more quickly

• Less stress during deployment

Note: Of course you can achieve all that Git Flow + SourceTree do for you with git terminal commands. Using the combo affords consistency and is a less error-prone method especially for teams + it’s faster + let’s you free some brain-cycles + memory space :)

Pros: of using Git Flow + SourceTree

Git Flow - smart branching model

Development branch (aka ‘develop’)

• Main development branch where all changes destined for next release are placed

• Directly commit small changes or merge other branches (e.g. feature branches) into this branch

• When code here reaches a stable point and is release-ready, changes should be merged into master

Production branch (aka ‘master’)

• Represents latest release/deployed codebase

• Update only by merging other branches into it

• Should always reflect a production-ready state

• Sometimes called “integration branch” – where any automatic nightly builds are built from

Concept summary: Main Branches

Git Flow - smart branching model

These branches unlike the main ones have limited life time, since they will be removed eventually.

Feature branches

• Create when you start working on anything non-trivial

• When done, merge into develop branch to queue it for next release

Release branches

• Create (from develop branch) when you are about to package a new release. Commit to this during preparation for release.

• When ready to deploy, merge into both develop + master branch

Hotfix branches

• Create (from latest deployed code in master) if you need to patch latest release without including new features from develop

• When done, changes are merged back into both master + develop

Concept summary: Support Branches

Git Flow - smart branching model

Visualization Grand Scheme

Git Flow - smart branching model

• Master is production ready code-base, develop is latest developed code-base.

• Manage features, releases, hot-fixes by using various supporting branches that are then merged into develop and/or master.

• Git Flow enforces the branching concepts described above for you; you don’t need to think about it.

• SourceTree integrates Git Flow seamlessly into its user interface; you don’t need to memorize terminal commands.

Cheers to a successful git branching model :)

Wrap up: take-away points

Git Flow - smart branching model

• Git Flow + Source Tree

http://blog.sourcetreeapp.com/2012/08/01/smart-branching-with-sourcetree-and-git-flow/

• Git Flow Model http://nvie.com/posts/a-successful-git-branching-model/

• Git Flow Cheat Sheet http://danielkummer.github.io/git-flow-cheatsheet/

Reference: #some-useful-resources