Git Branching Models
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Our current branching model is not optimal and makes keeping track of versions hard. This page discusses various branching models.
Models
Current SVN-like Model
- master is the development branch which contains incompatible code as well
- A version branch e.g. 1.5.2 is created when releasing a new stable version
- 'Stable commits' are merged from master frequently (==> rolling release like)
- We'd need something like http://i.imgur.com/sAWIOel.png
Pros
- Easy management of incompatible code (==> rolling-release works well)
Cons
- Prone to losing track of differences between master and version branches
- Doesn't integrate well with popular Git models implemented on e.g. GitHub
Feature Branches
- New, maybe incompatible features are implemented in separate branches and merged as soon as they are stable
- master is mostly stable
- When releasing a new version, a tag is created from master
- Release intervals are smaller
Feature Branches Example
- Current version is 1.5
- Someone wants to implement complicated things which are netcode-incompatible with 1.5
- Someone creates feature/complicated-things branched from master
- Work is now done on feature/complicated-things
- Once feature/complicated-things is ready it needs to wait for 1.6
- (time passes)
- (1.6 is ready for release)
- master is tagged as 1.5.x-final marking the end of 1.5 compatibility
- master version number is increased to 1.6
- feature/complicated-things is merged into master
- master build gets released to the public
Pros
- "Git"-way (==> integrates well with GitHub)
- No weird cherry-picking is necessary
Cons
- We have to modify our nightly system and build server settings to support feature branches somehow (required for properly distributing tests)