Simplifying our Branching Strategy

[gab9talavera]

Simplifying our Branching Strategy

To make contributing to this project easier and more predictable, we are updating our branching strategy.

What's Changing?

Previously, we have created a new dedicated branch for every release (ex: v2.30, v2.30u1, etc). Moving forward, we are retiring this approach in favor of a more streamlined three-branch workflow using dev, staging, and master.

Here is how these branches will be used.

dev (Development)

The dev branch will be the primary branch for all active development. All new features, bug fixes, and external contributions should target this branch.

staging (Pre-Release)

Shortly before official releases, dev will be merged into staging for final testing, bug fixes, and any last-minute changes before release.

master

The master branch will remain mostly unchanged, however for official releases changes will be merged from staging instead of the active development branch.

Why Are We Making This Change?

This new structure offers benefits both for people contributing to the NCCL repository as well as people using it.

• No More Guesswork for Contributors: Contributors no longer need to follow what the active release branch is in order to know what branch to target when raising Pull Requests. We now ask that all Pull Requests simply target dev. In some situations, we may ask that you target staging to be pulled into the pending release, but dev will always be the active development branch.
• Easier Access for Consumers: If you want to use the latest NCCL features, you can always find them on the dev branch. No need to hunt for the latest release branch.
• Cleaner Repository: Using stable branches will reduce branch clutter, making the repository cleaner and easier to navigate.

What Do You Need to Do?

• When opening a new Pull Request, please target the dev branch.
• For existing Pull Requests, we will request that you re-target to dev before accepting your change.

Thank you for your support and contributions!
Please let us know if you have any questions or feedback regarding this updated branching strategy.

We will begin using this new process starting Tuesday May 26th. If you have any concerns please provide them prior to this date.

—
Authored by Jay Skrobola (@jskrobola)

[xiaofanl-nvidia]

This is done. Closing.