More often we push our code through our version control, Git to hubs like GitHub or bitbucket which is a "Code Collaboration & Version Control". Personally, I'm conversant with Git and GitHub so I'll be talking about workflow in relation to it. Git-flow observes strict branching.
Gitflow is common or important for purposes:-
- Code review
- development teams(can't push directly to deployment)
- continuous software development
- implementation of DevOps practices
Normally with your GitHub account, you create a new repository and inside the repository, you have a default branch which is always Master/Main unless you create a new branch and make it the default branch.
So with git workflow, you are advised to only push code to master/main when it's for app releases otherwise you have to create a Development Branch that you will set as your default branch. You also don't push your code directly to the development branch you create feature-branch(es) then merge it to the default branch(development) through pull requests when features are complete features are complete.
Installation & initialitize git-flow
install git-flow
git flow init
(git-flow is a wrapper around git)
Develop & Master Branch
master records release history whereas development is the integration branch.
git checkout -b develop
git checkout develop
git checkout -b feature_branch
git flow feature start feature_branch
git checkout develop
git merge feature_branch
git flow finish feature_branch
Release Branch
Fork the Release branch off develop. It's meant to:-
- fix bugs
- documentation generation
- release oriented tasks Merge Release branch into master tagged with version number and also merge to develop for well-defined phases of development.
git checkout develop
git checkout -b release 0.1.0
git flow release start 0.1.0
Hotfix Branch
It's a maintenance branch that is based on the master not develop. Fork it directly off master. Merge it into both master & develop
git checkout master
git checkout -b hotfix_branch
git flow hotfix start hotfix_branch