Re: Understanding When to Use Branches

From: Konstantin Khomoutov <kostix+git@007spb.ru>
Date: Jan 8, 2013, 17:08 UTC
Message-ID: <20130108210800.c10104667727c8c9c4d2324d@domain007.com>
In-Reply-To: <50EC232D.90009@yahoo.com>

On Tue, 08 Jan 2013 08:46:21 -0500 gw1500 <wtriker.ffe@gmail.com> wrote:

Show 11 quoted lines

> As a git noobie I am beginning get get my head around git's version
> control philosophy. I am now trying to understand the purposes of
> branches or rather when to use them. In my case I have a Java
> application under version control with git. I am planning to port it
> into a mobile app. Is that an appropriate use of branches or should it
> be created as a new repository? What is the relationship between the
> same source code in different branches? Do changes to code in one
> branch get ported to another branch somehow or do all changes then
> have to be made twice? The documentation tells how to branch but not
> the general philosophy behind it from a best practices standpoint.
> Thanks in advance for any insight.

Supposedly you should start with the chapter on branching in The Book [1] and then read two classic blog posts [2, 3] describing two different branching models. The branching models described there are not the only two possible models to use with Git, but they are different enough to give you a good overview of possibilities. Note that mere googling for "git branching model" would yield a fair number of blog posts on people's pet branching models; these two documents just appear to be more "classic" than others.

If you have difficulty to even grasping the concept of branches and [1] feeld hard to digest, try first reading "The Git Parable" [4] which, I think, is the friendliest possible introduction to the basics of DVCS, branching included.

1. http://git-scm.com/book/en/Git-Branching
2. http://nvie.com/posts/a-successful-git-branching-model/
3. http://scottchacon.com/2011/08/31/github-flow.html
4. http://tom.preston-werner.com/2009/05/19/the-git-parable.html