Create a permanent `heptapod-stable` branch
The branching strategy that we've been using since #127 (closed) has been successful, in that it allowed to merge newer GitLab versions in the main heptapod
development branch easily.
We're currently been slowed down by another problem with current version specific stable branches, such as heptapod-0-8
or heptapod-0-12
:
any change made in those branches is based on the latest support release by GitLab and that makes it not mergeable back into heptapod
, which is based on a "trunk" GitLab commit such as v10.5.0.pre
or v12.2.0.pre
.
In practice, we've been living with that by
- doing all fixes in the
heptapod
branch and only then merge them into the version-specific stable branch. Obviously that's not possible any more as soon as the main branch has jumped GitLab versions, as is going to happen soon for preparation of the future Heptapod 0.13 - grafting fixes from the stable branch. This is less obvious and more error-prone than a good old merge. This led to a few mistakes in the 0.8 cycle and lengthy grafting sessions in the 0.12 cycle
From now on it'd be better to have a permanent heptapod-stable
branch. Being actually branched from heptapod
, it would be based on a "trunk" upstream GitLab commit, making it easy to merge both in the current version-specific stable branch and in the main development branch.
The release process would include merging heptapod-stable
into heptapod
(fixing what needs to) and into the version-specific stable branch (nothing to be fixed). That is easy to do and to verify.