Branching Strategies in Git

This article is part of our "Advanced Git" series. Follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our newsletter for updates on future articles!

Most version control systems (VCS) support branching. Essentially, branching creates a separate workspace for your changes, allowing experimentation without affecting the main codebase. Git's branching model is exceptionally powerful, known for its speed and efficiency in creating, switching between, and deleting branches. Git actively promotes branching-heavy workflows.

While individual developers have freedom in their branching practices, teamwork necessitates a shared strategy. Git provides the tools; the team defines the optimal usage. This article explores various branching strategies, branch types, and two popular workflows: Git Flow and GitHub Flow.

Advanced Git series:

1. Part 1: Creating the Perfect Commit in Git
2. Part 2: Branching Strategies in Git (You are here!)
3. Part 3: Better Collaboration With Pull Requests
4. Part 4: Merge Conflicts
5. Part 5: Rebase vs. Merge
6. Part 6: Interactive Rebase
7. Part 7: Cherry-Picking Commits in Git
8. Part 8: Using the Reflog to Restore Lost Commits

Teamwork: Establish a Branching Convention

Effective team collaboration requires a documented branching strategy and workflow. This documentation prevents conflicts, streamlines onboarding, and ensures everyone understands the process.

Examples of conventions:

• master (or main): Current public release.
• next: Upcoming public release (allows hotfixes on master without merging unrelated changes).
• feature/: Feature branches (organized under this prefix).
• wip/: Work-in-progress branches (for personal backups).

These conventions are illustrative; teams may adapt them to their needs.

Integrating Changes and Structuring Releases

Branching strategies should consider change integration and release structuring. Two contrasting approaches highlight the spectrum of possibilities:

• Mainline Development: A "always-integrate" approach using a single branch. All contributions are directly committed to the mainline. This simplifies tracking but requires rigorous testing and small, frequent commits.

• State, Release, and Feature Branches: Employs multiple branch types to manage features, releases, and development states. This approach is more complex but offers better organization and control for larger projects and teams. Most teams fall somewhere between these extremes.

Let's examine these in more detail.

Mainline Development

The core principle is continuous integration. All developers commit directly to a single branch. This simplifies tracking but demands high-quality testing to prevent integration issues. The simplicity makes it unsuitable for teams lacking robust testing infrastructure.

State, Release, and Feature Branches

This strategy uses different branch types for distinct purposes: feature development, release management, and representing various development stages. While initially appearing complex, it becomes manageable with practice and is well-suited for projects with more complex release cycles.

Next, we delve into long-running and short-lived branches.

Long-Running Branches

Every repository has at least one, often named master or main. Other long-running branches might include develop, production, or staging, representing different stages of the release process. These branches persist throughout the project's lifecycle.

A common rule is to avoid direct commits to long-running branches. Instead, changes are integrated via merging or rebasing, ensuring code quality and controlled releases.

Short-Lived Branches

These branches serve temporary purposes, created for specific tasks (new features, bug fixes, refactoring) and deleted after integration into a long-running branch. They typically branch from a long-running branch, allowing isolated development and then merging the completed work back into the main line.

Two Popular Branching Strategies: Git Flow and GitHub Flow

Two widely used strategies offer different approaches:

Git Flow

This strategy uses main for production releases and develop for ongoing development. Feature branches branch from develop, and release branches are created from develop for preparing releases. Once tested, release branches are merged into main, tagged, and deleted. While effective for packaged software, it might be overly complex for web projects.

GitHub Flow

Suitable for continuous delivery with frequent releases, GitHub Flow uses a single main branch. All work, regardless of type (feature, bug fix, refactoring), resides in its own branch until merged into main. Its simplicity makes it ideal for rapid iteration.

Choosing the Right Strategy

The optimal branching strategy is highly context-dependent. Teams should collaboratively assess their project needs, release strategy, and development process to select the most suitable approach. There's no one-size-fits-all solution. Consider exploring additional resources like the "Advanced Git Kit" for a deeper understanding of advanced Git tools.

Advanced Git series:

1. Part 1: Creating the Perfect Commit in Git
2. Part 2: Branching Strategies in Git (You are here!)
3. Part 3: Better Collaboration With Pull Requests
4. Part 4: Merge Conflicts
5. Part 5: Rebase vs. Merge
6. Part 6: Interactive Rebase
7. Part 7: Cherry-Picking Commits in Git
8. Part 8: Using the Reflog to Restore Lost Commits

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