Using a Maintenance Branch

Jump to bottom Edit New page

gregjan edited this page Aug 8, 2012 · 3 revisions

Using a Maintenance Branch

This page will show you how to create and use a maintenance branch from any commit or from a release tag.

Creating the branch

check for existing maintenance branch so as not to duplicate

git pull - first update local repository from remote
git branch -l - list branches

find the starting point (commit or tag). Look at the history or tag list to find the starting point you want:

git hist - find commit ids
git tag -l - find release tags

create a new tracked remote branch

git checkout --track -b <major version>.x <tag/commit>, for example git checkout --track -b 2.x 2.0

update POMs to next minor SNAPSHOT version

mvn versions:set -DnewVersion=<version+1>-SNAPSHOT -DgenerateBackupPoms=false (inserts new version into POMs. increment the proper version digit)
vim pom.xml - update the cdr-version property in parent POM (updates dependencies)
We will create tags for minor releases, but will use the one maintenance branch per major version.

fix bugs

Fix bugs on the branch and commit changes to your local repository.
Optionally consolidate/squash commits together with git commit --amend or git rebase -i
Push changes to remote repository

Performing a maintenance release

follow the normal release procedure to deploy a maintenance branch.

How to merge minor fixes into a major branch

Commit your fixes on the proper release maintenance branch. (How to release the cdr)
Before any major release and at any time prior to that, perform a biased merge from maintenance to master (or major release branch).

git checkout <branch>, where branch is the major branch or master
git merge -s recursive -X ours <fixes-branch> (In a conflict this will keep the master change.)
commit the merge, if not done automatically.
push the major/master branch back to origin