GitFlow.Practice

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Init

$ git flow init

The default branch stratrgy:

Branch name/prefix	Description
master	Production releases.
develop	Next release development.
feature/	Feature branches
bugfix/	Bugfix branches
release/	Release branches
hotfix/	Hotfix branches
support/	Support branches

Then sync with a remote repository (optionaly) by

$ git remote add origin git@github.com:<id>/<repository>

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Feature development

Create a feature Branch based on develop branch

$ git flow feature start <my_branch>

Or by

$ git checkout -b feature/<my_branch> develop

Track and push to remote

After saving changes to local repository, we can push the commit(s) to remote by,

$ git flow feature publish <my_branch>

Or

$ git push --set-upstream origin feature/<my_branch>

After that we can push commit(s) with git push.

Checkout an exist branch and pull

$ git flow feature pull origin <my_branch>

Or

$ git checkout feature/<my_branch>
$ git pull --rebase

Merge to develop branch

$ git checkout develop
$ git pull --rebase
$ git flow feature finish <my_branch>
$ git push

Or

$ git checkout develop
$ git pull --rebase

# Merge feature branch to develop branch without fast-forward
$ git merge --no-ff feature/<my_branch>
$ git push
$ git branch -d feature/<branch>
$ git push origin -d feature/<branch> 

After merging the feature branch to develop branch, the git history is like:

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Start A Release

Create a release branch based on develop branch

$ git flow release start <name_or_version> [base]

The optional argument, [base], must be the commit hash code on the develop branch.

For example,

$ git flow release start 0.1.0

Track and push to remote

$ git flow release publish 0.1.0

If you wanna to checkout and pull an exist release branch:

git flow release pull origin 0.1.0

So far we get the git history like this:

Finish the release

$ git flow release finish 0.1.0

The command will do the actions:

• Release branch 'release/0.1.0' has been merged into 'master'
• The release was tagged '0.1.0' (annotated tag with name as the release branch name)
• Release tag '0.1.0' has been back-merged into 'develop'
• Release branch 'release/0.1.0' has been locally deleted; it has been remotely deleted from 'origin'
• You are now on branch 'develop'

In other words, the git flow release finish <release_branch> command executes:

$ git checkout master
$ git merge --no-ff release/0.1.0
$ git tag -a 0.1.0
$ git checkout develop
$ git merge --no-ff release/0.1.0
$ git branch -d release/0.1.0
$ git push origin -d release/0.1.0

After finishing up the release, don't forget to update the remote by:

# Push to remote develop branch
$ git push
# Checkout master and push commits and annotated tag
$ git checkout master
$ git push --follow-tags

Now the git history is as follwoing.

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Bug Fixing

The flow of bugfix is similar with feature. Let's go through the flow quickly.

# Create bugfix branch
$ git flow bugfix start <my_branch>

# Track and push
$ git flow bugfix publish <my_branch>

# Merge to develop branch
$ git flow bugfix finish <my_branch>

# Push develop branch
$ git push

# Create release branch, track and push to remote
$ git flow release start 0.1.1
$ git flow release publish 0.1.1

$ Finish release
$ git flow release finish 0.1.1
$ git push
$ git checkout master
$ git push --follow-tags

The result:

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Hotfix

Create a Hotfix branch

$ git flow hotfix start <name_or_version> [base]

For example,

$ git flow hotfix start 0.1.2

Track and push to remote

$ git flow hotfix publish 0.1.2

Or checkout and pull the exist hotfix branch from remote:

git flow hotfix pull origin 0.1.2

Finish the Hotfix

The behavior of git flow hotfix finish is similar with git flow release finish.

$ git flow hotfix finish 0.1.2

Summary of actions:

• Hotfix branch 'hotfix/0.1.2' has been merged into 'master'
• The hotfix was tagged '0.1.2'
• Hotfix tag '0.1.2' has been back-merged into 'develop'
• Hotfix branch 'hotfix/0.1.2' has been locally deleted; it has been remotely deleted from 'origin'
• You are now on branch 'develop'

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References

• git-flow cheetsheet