Common Git Workflows

• Common Git workflows include Centralized Workflow, Feature Branching, Gitflow Workflow, and Forking Workflow.

Centralized Workflow

• Treats a single repository (often the main branch) as the central authority, similar to traditional version control systems like SVN.
• Developers clone the repository, make changes locally, and directly push to the central repository, often without extensive branching.
• git push origin main will push changes to the remote repository.
• git pull --rebase origin main will update local repository with remote changes.

Gitflow Workflow

• A structured branching model with main and develop as the two main branches, as well as supporting branches for features, releases, and hotfixes.
• Developer workflow: create feature branches from develop, merge back after completion, create release branches for finalizing versions, and hotfix branches for urgent patches to production.
• Branches of the workflow include:
  • master (or main): stores the currently released version of code.
  • develop: stores a copy of the main branch with all additional changes that have been added after the last release.
  • feature: branches created by developers off of the develop branch for new features.
  • hotfix: branches used to quickly patch production releases and fork directly off of main/master.
  • Branch names are generally named based on the change made. Ex. bug/StackOverflowFixInService or task/PRJ-1234-AddCardPage.

Forking Workflow

• Common in open-source projects.
• Contributors fork the central repository into their accounts, make changes in their forks, and submit pull requests to propose changes to the original repository.

Feature Branching

• Involves creating a separate branch for each new feature or task.
• Developers work on isolated branches, and, once complete and reviewed, the feature branch is merged back into the main or development branch.

Preparing for Github Usage

• Select someone in the team to be responsible for GitHub.
• The selected person creates a repository on GitHub and invites other members.
• Need to protect key branches.
• Must not forget the .gitignore file.

Adding Github Collaborators

• Invite team members to collaborate.
• Team members must accept the invitations.

Branch Protection Rule

• Protect the main branch (main/master).
• Can only update commits to the main branch with pull requests.
• State how many people must approve a pull request.

Git Workflow

• The workflow includes the following steps:
  • If you do not have the repository cloned locally, clone it from GitHub git clone <repository-url>.
  • Navigate to the repository directory using the command cd <repository-url>.
  • If there is a repository, ensure you are on the main brach: git switch main.
  • Pull the latest changes from the remote main branch to sync with git pull origin main.
  • Creates a new branch when a job is started and it is pulled from Jira: git switch -c Task-123.

Develop Locally

• Stage changes via git add .
• Commit changes with a message git commit -m "Implement feature X as per TASK-123".
• Update the branch before pushing, or merge git fetch orogin or git merge origin/main.

Resolve Conflicts

• Conflicts must be resolved if they arise after merging. Command: git add <resolved-files> and git commit.
• An alternative to merging is Rebasing git rebase origin/main.

Merge vs Rebase

• Merge: merging an existing branch with the specified brach.
• Rebase: merging with the specification to rewrite the branch's commits so they appear to be started from another branch.
  • Often used to keep projects more organized.
  • Needs to be performed with care, as the record history is being altered.

Pushing a Feature Branch

• To push a feature, use the command $ git push origin TASK-123.

Pull Requests

• Then, create a pull request.
• PRs have to be reviewed and if necessary, modified and committed.
• Afterwards, the PR has to get merged into the development branch.
• Return to the main branch and pull new changes with git pull origin development.
• Delete the feature branch (git branch -d TASK-123).
• Delete the feature branch from the remote repository.
• Run git fetch --prune to clean up stale references.
• To add the feature in future, ensure that you are o the main branch (git switch main).
• To create a new feature, replace with the correct names git switch -c TASK-456.

Useful commands

• git stash to temporarily store all modified tracked files and changes to allow switching branches.
• Use $ git reset --soft HEAD~1 to undo the last commit but maintain the changes in the working directory.