Git flow

Introduction to Git flow

GitFlow is a branching model for Git, created by Vincent Driessen. It has attracted a lot of attention because it is very well suited for a release-based software workflow. In addition, it offers a dedicated channel for hotfixes to production.

Gitflow utilizes the core feature of Git, which is the power of branches. In this model, a repository has two main branches master and develop.

Master

This is a highly stable branch that is always production-ready and contains the last release version of source code in production.

Develop

Derived from the master branch, the development branch serves as a branch for integrating different features planned for an upcoming release. This branch may or may not be as stable as the master branch. It is where developers collaborate and merge feature branches.

Apart from those two primary branches, there are three other branches in the workflow: feature, release and hotfix.

Feature

This derives from the develop branch and is used to develop features.

Git flow

git checkout develop -b featureName

Code and git commit

git checkout develop

git merge —no-ff featureName

git branch -d featureName

git push

Release

This also derives from develop branch but is used during releases.

Git flow

git checkout develop -b release-2.7

Bump version to 2.7

Code and git commit

git checkout master

git merge —no-ff release-2.7

git tag -a release-2.7

git push — tags

git checkout develop

git merge —no-ff release-2.7

git branch -d release-2.7

Hotfix

This derives from the master branch and is used to fix a bug in the production branch that was identified after a release.

Git flow

git checkout master -b hotfix-2.7.1

Code and git commit

git checkout master

git merge — no-ff hotfix-2.7.1

git tag -a hotfix-2.7.1

git checkout develop

git merge —no-ff hotfix-2.7.1

git branch -d hotfix-2.7.1

Summary

Git flow has attracted a lot of attention because it is very well suited for collaboration and scaling the development team. It manages all changes through pull requests. It provides strict access control to all changes. You can safely check what is being introduced into the source code.

If you want to introduce GitFlow into your workflow have a look at these links: