Don’t Span the Gap - Restart Branches After Merging
Table of Contents
Restarting a Semver Branch After a Release
When making a release, all lower level semver branches and features (which are to be included in that release) must be ended and merged.
When more work needs to be done at a lower semver level, for example semver/minor, start a new branch named semver/minor after the release.
The following log graph shows two semver/minor branches (marked with ») before and after a release on semver/major tagged semver/1.0.0. It also shows a branch feature/newFeature that was not completed in time to be included in the release.
* 77534d7 (top) top
* 676aac5 Merge branch semver/major.
|\
| * 68ea9fe End branch "semver/major".
| * 5ff7c11 Merge branch "semver/minor".
| |\
» | | * a115621 End branch "semver/minor".
» | | * c955d70 (semver/minor, tag: semver/1.1.0) 1.1.0
» | | * 4a5131f Changes
» | | * 46d3bff Changes
» | | * a421cd8 (semver/minor) Start branch "semver/minor".
| |/
| * 6196a9e (semver/major) (stage/production, tag: semver/1.0.0) 1.0.0
| * f2ddc34 Changes
| * 5ff7c11 Merge branch "semver/minor".
| |\
» | | * a115621 End branch "semver/minor".
» | | * 5ff7c11 Merge branch "semver/patch".
» | | | * f4dd5f9 (feature/newFeature) Changes
» | | | * 1a3b91e Changes
» | | | * f07cf19 Start branch "feature/newFeature".
» | | |/
» | | * c955d70 (tag: semver/0.1.0) 0.1.0
» | | * 4a5131f Changes
» | | * 46d3bff Changes
» | | * 77d858d Change "name" and "description" in "project.json".
» | | * a421cd8 Start branch "semver/minor".
| |/
| * a82ec76 Start branch "semver/major".
|/
* b70ccd4 Non merge branch parent.
* 62c16cf Merge branch "feat/repoSetup".
|\
| * a38e260 End branch "feat/repoSetup".
| * d20a5c1 Create blank project and add standard dependencies.
| * fd45a8f Create ".gitignore and ".gitattributes".
| * caa16d4 Start branch "feat/repoSetup".
|/
* eea3281 (root) Create a new repository.
Updating a Feature Branch After a Release
Incorrectly Spanning Over a Higher Level Release
Feature branches may not merge in a way that spans a gap in mainline branching.
In this example, if feature/newFeature is now merged into semver/minor, it will incorrectly span over release semver/1.0.0 (marked with »).
The following log graph is faked for easier understanding! If you do this, the graph git shows will be much uglier.
» Warning, incorrect example!
* 77534d7 (top) top
* 676aac5 Merge branch semver/major.
|\
| * 68ea9fe End branch "semver/major".
| * 5ff7c11 Merge branch "semver/minor".
| |\
| | * a115621 End branch "semver/minor".
| | * c955d70 (semver/minor, tag: semver/1.1.0) 1.1.0
» | | * 5ff7c11 Merge branch "feature/newFeature".
» | | |\
» | | | * 3dc530a End branch "feature/newFeature".
» | | * | 4a5131f Changes
» | | * | 46d3bff Changes
» | | * | a421cd8 Start branch "semver/minor".
» | |/ |
» | * | 6196a9e (semver/major) (stage/production, tag: semver/1.0.0) 1.0.0
» | * | f2ddc34 Changes
» | * | 5ff7c11 Merge branch "semver/minor".
» | |\ |
» | | * | a115621 End branch "semver/minor".
» | | | * 1a3b91e Changes
» | | | * 1a3b91e Changes
» | | | * f07cf19 Start branch "feature/newFeature".
| | |/
| | * c955d70 (tag: semver/0.1.0) 0.1.0
| | * 4a5131f Changes
| | * 46d3bff Changes
| | * 77d858d Change "name" and "description" in "project.json".
| | * a421cd8 Start branch "semver/minor".
| |/
| * a82ec76 Start branch "semver/major".
|/
* b70ccd4 Non merge branch parent.
* 62c16cf Merge branch "feat/repoSetup".
|\
| * a38e260 End branch "feat/repoSetup".
| * d20a5c1 Create blank project and add standard dependencies.
| * fd45a8f Create ".gitignore and ".gitattributes".
| * caa16d4 Start branch "feat/repoSetup".
|/
* eea3281 (root) Create a new repository.
Correctly Rebasing Onto The New Mainline
Instead, rebase feature/newFeature onto the new semver/minor.
The following log graph shows feature/newFeature after being rebased (marked with ») using the following commands. git checkout feature/newFeature git rebase -i --onto=semver/minor c955d70 There may be conflicts that need to be resolved during the rebase.
After the rebase, feature/newFeature can be merged back into semver/minor because feature/newFeature is based on it.
* 77534d7 (top) top
* 676aac5 Merge branch semver/major.
|\
| * 68ea9fe End branch "semver/major".
| * 5ff7c11 Merge branch "semver/minor".
| |\
| | * a115621 End branch "semver/minor".
» | | | * e2dba39 (feature/newFeature) Changes
» | | | * 178b6ff Changes
» | | | * 631b75f Start branch "feature/newFeature".
| | |/
| | * c955d70 (semver/minor, tag: semver/1.1.0) 1.1.0
| | * 4a5131f Changes
| | * 46d3bff Changes
| | * a421cd8 (semver/minor) Start branch "semver/minor".
| |/
| * 6196a9e (semver/major) (stage/production, tag: semver/1.0.0) 1.0.0
| * f2ddc34 Changes
| * 5ff7c11 Merge branch "semver/minor".
| |\
| | * a115621 End branch "semver/minor".
| | * 5ff7c11 Merge branch "semver/patch".
| | * c955d70 (tag: semver/0.1.0) 0.1.0
| | * 4a5131f Changes
| | * 46d3bff Changes
| | * 77d858d Change "name" and "description" in "project.json".
| | * a421cd8 Start branch "semver/minor".
| |/
| * a82ec76 Start branch "semver/major".
|/
* b70ccd4 Non merge branch parent.
* 62c16cf Merge branch "feat/repoSetup".
|\
| * a38e260 End branch "feat/repoSetup".
| * d20a5c1 Create blank project and add standard dependencies.
| * fd45a8f Create ".gitignore and ".gitattributes".
| * caa16d4 Start branch "feat/repoSetup".
|/
* eea3281 (root) Create a new repository.