Gitflow notes

Guidelines for setting up and managing a repository with Gitflow:

Initialization

Initialize repository with:

git flow init

Use default settings:

• [master] for production releases
• [develop] for development
• [feature/] for feature branches
• [bugfix/] for bugfix branches
• [release/] for release branches
• [hotfix/] for hotfix branches
• [support/] for support branches.
• No version tag prefix.
• Hooks and filters directory? [.../.git/hooks]

keep the version in a single location inside the project. For meson projects version is kept in a meson.build. For python projects pyproject.toml etc. For unstructured projects version.txt

Release

1. Start the release branch
From develop run:

git flow release start 1.0.0

This creates a release/1.0.0 branch off develop.

2. Bump your version number
On the release branch, update the file(s) hold your version - e.g. meson.build, pyproject.toml, version.txt, etc. Commit that change:

git commit -m "chore: bump version to 1.0.0"

This is also the time for last-minute release prep: update a CHANGELOG, fix docs, etc. No new features.

3. Finish the release

git flow release finish 1.0.0 -m "Release version 1.0.0"

The tag message is required. If not provided you’ll be prompted for a tag message. This operation does three things automatically:

• Merges release/1.0.0 → master
• Tags master with v1.0.0
• Merges release/1.0.0 back → develop
• Deletes the release branch

4. Push everything

git push origin master
git push origin develop
git push origin --tags

5. Continue working
On the develop branch, update the file(s) hold your version - e.g. meson.build, pyproject.toml, version.txt, etc. Commit that change:

git commit -m "chore: bump version to 0.2.0-dev"

Commit messages

Use conventional commit message prefixes:

• feat: - new feature
• fix: - bug fix
• chore: - maintenance tasks (version bumps, dependency updates, tooling changes)
• docs: - documentation only
• refactor: - code restructuring

Versioning

Use Semantic Versioning:

Feature

From develop

git flow feature start my-feature

Work on your feature, making commits as normal. When done:

git flow feature finish my-feature

This merges the feature branch back into develop and deletes the feature branch. Then push:

git push origin develop

No tagging, no touching master. Features only ever interact with develop.