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Gud Branch

Branching Strategies

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Trees vs Lanes

The strategies below are tree based strategies, not lane based strategies. Many lane based git diagrams you may have seen before are visually depicted horizontally (unlike actual git log graphs which are always vertical) and do not fit naturally with the data structure that git uses internally (a Merkle tree). Work committed in git does not tend to stay in lanes, but to diverge farther with each commit on a branch. Crossing lines in git diagrams generally indicate anti-patterns that make the repository difficult to maintain. The strategies below help minimize divergence and eliminate crossing merges.

badGitDiagram.png

Strategies

Mainline with Semantic Versioning

semver branches

semver/major semver/minor semver/patch

Disambiguate multiple same-level branches (see Example Hotfix): semver/patch-1.0.x

semver tags

production release: semver/1.0.0

pre-release: semver/1.0.0-wip001

deployment stage branches

pattern: stage/...

examples: stage/development stage/qa stage/beta stage/production

Optionally, trigger pipelines with separate branches and only update stage branches after deployment is successful. stage/trigger/... stage/trigger/development stage/trigger/qa stage/trigger/beta stage/trigger/production

Feature Branches

pattern: feature/...

examples: feature/newFeature

merge plans: feature/mergePlan/... feature/mergePlan/newFeature

Release Branches

pattern: release/...

examples: release/1.0.0

Strategy Details

Test Code Isolation Branches

pattern: test/...

examples: test/semver/minor test/feature/newFeature

Contributor Branch Namespaces

pattern: u/user.name/...

examples: u/user.name/semver/minor u/user.name/feature/newFeature u/user.name/wip

Other Branch Namespace

pattern: other/...

examples: other/archive/feature/newFeature-OLD_VERSION

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Mainline with Semantic Versioning

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