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Rıfat Erdem Sahin
Rıfat Erdem Sahin

Reputation: 1778

Release Branch and Continuous Delivery

Requirements

With git-flow we are supposed to deploy the release (or master) branch in production. ( two different pipelines,one for continuous integration (branch develop) and one for continuous delivery (branch master).

How should I use my release branch ?

What I have in mind is if the tests pass in develop. I would make the CI server create a release branch commit. And deploy the updated release branch points to my productions staging slot. After business approval one of the release points would get deployed to production.

This means I am letting CI server automatically create a release-branch and re-run all the tests on staging slots of production environment. If it fails, it will report and delete the release branch, otherwise it will create the release point,trigger network swap and merge it to master.

What is the pros and cons to this approach ? What is the best practice ?

Do we really need the release branch especially where we are not using feature toggles to separate releases ? ( there are multiple people working on the same project )

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Reference

Upvotes: 4

Views: 3808

Answers (2)

bluescores
bluescores

Reputation: 4677

git-flow says about release branches:

Release branches support preparation of a new production release. They allow for last-minute dotting of i’s and crossing t’s. Furthermore, they allow for minor bug fixes and preparing meta-data for a release (version number, build dates, etc.). By doing all of this work on a release branch, the develop branch is cleared to receive features for the next big release.

If your group's workflow doesn't match the use case for release branches, don't use them. If you find you need them later, start using them.

We use git-flow in one of the groups where I work. Often we only have one or maybe two developers working on a project doing maintenance, and it's rare that we need to simultaneously bug fix and add features. We don't use release branches unless we have that specific scenario.

Overall I like the pipelines you're setting up.

Upvotes: 2

Joe Phillips
Joe Phillips

Reputation: 51200

Typically I would create/cut a release branch when you think the code is close enough to stable. Then you need to refine that branch until it's release-ready. You would do extensive regression testing after this and then finally tag it and release it.

If you're doing true continuous releases then you might be skipping a lot of that testing so there isn't really a big point in even having a release branch. It's a lot riskier but you can do it if it fits your model.

Upvotes: 2

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