Branching Workflow¶

The branching workflow is usually used with specific guidelines about how to use and name branches. A general rule of thumb is that each branch should be specifically named and used for a defined purpose. See the Forking and Branching section for detailed steps about how to create branches.

# Mercurial Branch
$ hg bookmark issue-568

# Git Branch
$ git branch issue-568
$ git checkout issue-568

Branching Overview¶

Legend:	The following code examples correspond with the numbered steps in the diagram.

#1 clone your fork locally and pull the latest changes from upstream
$ git clone git://your-fork
$ git pull --rebase upstream master

#2 create a new branch
$ git checkout -b branch-1

#3 push the branch to your remote fork
$ git push origin branch-1

#4  Open a pull request from your fork to upstream/master

#5 Merge your pull request with the upstream/master
$ git merge --no-ff pull request

#6 pull and rebase your work plus any other work to your local branch
$ git checkout master
$ git pull --rebase upstream master

#7 push the new commit history to your fork
$ git push origin master

Setting up a Branching Workflow¶

Setting up a branching workflow requires giving users access to the repository. For more information, see the Repository Administration section.

Using a Branching Workflow¶

If you are on a team that uses a branching workflow, see the Forking and Branching section for how to create branches, and also the Pull Requests section. You may also find the How to Squash Commits in Mercurial section useful.