Git Workflows

Branching Strategies

• Different teams will choose different strategies for managing their branches.
• A branching strategy is also called a "workflow"
  • one popular strategy is named "Git Flow" but it's not the only git flow

Long Running Branches

• This strategy uses two or more branches that are periodically merged into the master branch.
• In this strategy, once you merge a change master you are saying "this change is ready for testing and deployment"

Benefits

• Simple
• Consistent
• Low cognitive overhead

Problems

• Conflicts between master and the other branches
• Need to keep long running branches to a minimum

Example: Master <- Develop

• Using the master branch as stable
• And using the develop branch as experimental

Using this strategy, you would merge the development branch into master when you want to activate the new features.

Example: Long Running Diagram

Example: Long Running Code

$ git checkout master
$ git status

On branch master
Your branch is up-to-date with 'origin/master'.

$ git branch develop
$ git checkout develop
$ git add files_that_changed
$ git commit -m "My awesome changes"
$ git checkout master
$ git pull
$ git merge develop
$ git push origin/master

Feature Branches

• Feature branches are short lived and focus on one feature at a time
• They should be branched off the updated master and be merged quickly

Benefits

• Isolated code changes
• Easy to merge when used as designed
• Leaves a trace about the intent of the branch

Problems

• Can clutter the history
• Need to be disciplined about keeping feature branches focused and short-lived

Master <- Feature

• Using master branch as stable
• And using a new topic or feature branch as experimental

Example: Feature Branch Diagram

Example: Feature Branches Many

Continuous Delivery

• Some teams merge new features directly to master
• After every commit, the code is automatically...
  • tested
  • deployed
• This flow depends on a solid, stable set of automated tests
• Benefits from feature flags which can switch new features on and off

https://martinfowler.com/bliki/ContinuousDelivery.html