master

Represents what is in production

develop

Long running branch that contains latest tested work ready for the next release

feature

This is where work is done. These are discrete branches for doing an atomic feature

release

This is how you release all new completed features in 'develop' that are now ready for production

hotfix

This how you release an emergency fix to production

Creating Features

$ git checkout -b myfeature develop
Switched to a new branch "myfeature"

Finishing a Feature

$ git checkout develop
Switched to branch 'develop'

$ git merge myfeature --no-ff
Updating ea1b82a..05e9557
(Summary of changes)

$ git branch -d myfeature
Deleted branch myfeature (was 05e9557).

$ git push origin develop

No Fastforward Merge

Releases are there to start the preparation for going live.

Creating a Release

$ git checkout -b release-1.2 develop
Switched to a new branch "release-1.2"

$ ./bump-version.sh 1.2
Files modified successfully, version bumped to 1.2.

$ git commit -a -m "Bumped version number to 1.2"
[release-1.2 74d9424] Bumped version number to 1.2
1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

Finishing a Release

$ git checkout master
Switched to branch 'master'

$ git merge release-1.2 --no-ff
Merge made by recursive.
(Summary of changes)

$ git tag -a 1.2

$ git checkout develop
Switched to branch 'develop'

$git merge release-1.2 --no-ff
Merge made by recursive.
(Summary of changes)

$ git branch -d release-1.2
Deleted branch myfeature (was 05e9557).

Creating a Hotfix

$ git checkout -b hotfix-1.2.1 master
Switched to a new branch "hotfix-1.2.1"

$ ./bump-version.sh 1.2.1
Files modified successfully, version bumped to 1.2.1.

$ git commit -a -m "Bumped version number to 1.2.1"
[hotfix-1.2.1 41e61bb] Bumped version number to 1.2.1
1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

Fix the bug

$ git commit -m "Fixed severe production problem"
[hotfix-1.2.1 abbe5d6] Fixed severe production problem
5 files changed, 32 insertions(+), 17 deletions(-)

Finishing a Hotfix

$ git checkout master
Switched to branch 'master'

$ git merge hotfix-1.2.1 --no-ff
Merge made by recursive.
(Summary of changes)

$ git tag -a 1.2.1

$ git checkout develop
Switched to branch 'develop'

$ git merge hotfix-1.2.1 --no-ff
Merge made by recursive.
(Summary of changes)

$ git branch -d hotfix-1.2.1
Deleted branch hotfix-1.2.1 (was abbe5d6).

What if there is an existing Release?

When a release branch currently exists, the hotfix changes need to be merged into that release branch, instead of develop