Threeflow

A git branching model which is based on 3 branches: develop, candidate and main.

The original inspiration for this was the cactus model, and this article

Installation

If you are on Linux/MacOS, you can do the following:

1. Clone the git repo

git clone git@github.com:patbeagan1/Threeflow.git

2. Add the repo directory to your path

cd Threeflow && export PATH="$PATH:`pwd`"

3. Rehash (so the script will be discovered, and you can use it right away)

hash -r

4. Try out flow.sh

flow.sh

5. Add the export PATH="$PATH:XYZ" statement to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc file. Make sure that you use the absolute path name for the Threeflow directory. To check and see if you did it correctly, open up a new terminal and type echo $PATH. You should see the Threeflow directory at the end.
6. Update as needed by performing git pull in your clone

Usage information

Usage: flow (feature_start|feature_finish
            |patch_start|patch_finish
            |release_start|release_finish
            |hotfix_start|hotfix_finish) [branchname]

SubCommand	Description
init	Creates the original 3 branches: develop, candidate and main
view	Shows the current state of git, within the terminal.
feature_start	This will create the specified feature branch off of develop
feature_finish	This will merge the specified feature branch back into develop
patch_start	This will create the specified patch branch off of candidate
patch_finish	This will merge the specified patch branch back into candidate
release_start	This will start a new release by merging the develop branch into candidate. It will tag the place where it diverges from develop.
release_finish	This will tag the release, and merge the candidate branch into BOTH develop and main. The merge to develop will be a --no-ff, and the merge to main will be a fastforward.
hotfix_start	This will start a hotfix branch off of the main branch. It will tag the place where it diverges from main. Since hotfix branches are temporary, they do not have a static name.
hotfix_finish	This will tag the hotfix, and merge it into main, candidate, and develop.

Testing

When testing this script, you should create a new git repo in another directory, then call this script via its absolute path. If you don't you may get unpredictable results in this repo.