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Branching strategy - Feature vs Release

From: Richard Gundersen <richardgundersen_at_hotmail.com>
Date: 2006-11-08 21:45:46 CET

Hi Duncan

Yep, that sounds like a mixture of the two. I think this supports my side of
the argument I'm having at work, where one camp is determined to go for a
pure 'release-branch' strategy, and the camp I'm in going for a pure
"feature-branch" strategy. This is the way I see it:

The feature-based approach is:
        1) 100% capable of managing the entire lifecycle WITHOUT help from other
strategies
        2) Very safe
        3) Very flexible

The downside is that you have to overcome your fear of merging branches.
But, I don't have that fear because I've done it so often. Yeah,
occasionally there's the odd tricky merge (especially if you forget to merge
trunk changes into your branch for a few weeks) but it's nothing to worry
about if you do it properly.

The release-based approach is:
        1) Easy, because there's not as much merging
        2) Especially suited to systems with a simple release schedule, where any
and all changes are lumped together in one big release (note that: it's NO
BETTER than the feature-based approach in this regard)

There comes a point though, when the release-based approach isn't powerful
enough, and it has to start using feature branches - a kind of hybrid
strategy. When this time comes, you have the additional branches that you
set out to try and avoid in the first place, you have the complication of
merging that you originally wanted to avoid, and you have an unstable trunk.

Ultimately, I would be asking myself 'why not use feature branching in the
first place?'.

NB I'm not trying to be provocative in case that's how I come accross. I
genuinely find this an interesting debate and I'm grateful for the replies
I've had already (for and against)

Richard

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Received on Wed Nov 8 21:46:43 2006

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