Branches

Git branch model

- develop

- feature

- release

- master

Some basic rules for successful development using branches:

- master only gets updated from release

- develop is the main working branch

- develop is the source for new releases and features

- features can only go back into develop

resource: https://nvie.com/posts/a-successful-git-branching-model/

Create a new development branch from master

git branch develop
git push --set-upstream origin develop

Develop code

The develop branch is used for continuous code development and for working out conflicts when merging features that were on a separate branch. Only when the code is functional enough can it be considered as a release candidate (see Releases below).

Set up develop environment

When developing code for a website, it may be wise to clone the project into a new folder so as not to mess with the live/production 'master' environment

git clone git@gitserver:myproject myproj_dev
cd myproj_dev
git checkout develop

If the development branch and work environment has already been created, then simply checkout the code:

cd myproject_dev
git checkout develop

It may be useful to have a text file BUGS to let the developers know what work is still outstanding.

A text file CHANGES might be useful for the end-user to quickly see which new features or bug fixes have been incorporated.

Commit code

After you have developed your code and completed some logical component it is wise to commit the changes to the repository to make it easier for future code revision and debugging.

git add .
git commit -m <commit message>

Upload commit to server

When a remote repository is available it is good practice to also upload the latest commit so everyone else can get access to the most recent changes in code.

git push

Releases

When the code in the develop branch is functional and without major bugs it can be considered as a release candidate. Code in the release branch can still contain bugs, but it's intended to fix only the current bugs and not introduce new features. Once the release has been thoroughly tested and all known bugs are squashed it can be brought over to the main branch (see Stable branch below).

Create Release branch

If not done so already, create a new Release branch from develop.

git branch release
git push --set-upstream origin release

If the release branch has already been created, then simply checkout the release branch

git checkout release

Develop your code and commit as per normal.

It may be useful to create a text file RELEASE_VERSION to let the developers know what this release is for.

Stable

When finishing touches on the release branch have completed it's time to merge the code of the release branch into the master branch. The master branch is where only stable code releases should live. This keeps the branch clean from development work and commit comments.

git checkout master
git pull origin master
git merge release
git push origin master

If the 'release' branch is not yet known to the master branch, you can bring the local git up to date with what's on the server with the fetch command:

git fetch

Do not merge from release again until the version in release is ready to be called stable.

Next, go to the development environment and open the release branch and rev up the RELEASE_VERSION to what the next stable version number should be.