Git Best Practices

A guide for developers on using version control system.

Standard Guidelines

• Use _ or - as separations for repo and branch names.
• Always start your work at new branch.
• Choose rebase and merge respective to branches.
• Maintain separate branch for development, staging and production.
• Provide proper tags and release versions.

Work Practice

Create a local feature branch based off master.

git checkout master
git pull
git checkout -b <branch-name>

Rebase frequently to incorporate upstream changes.

git fetch origin
git rebase origin/master

Resolve conflicts. When feature is complete and tests pass, stage the changes.

git add --all

When you've staged the changes, commit them.

git status
git commit --verbose

Write a good commit message. Example format:

Present-tense summary under 50 characters

* More information about commit (under 72 characters).
* More information about commit (under 72 characters).

http://project.management-system.com/ticket/123

If you've created more than one commit, use git rebase interactively to squash them into cohesive commits with good messages:

git rebase -i origin/master

Share your branch.

git push origin <branch-name>

Submit a GitHub pull request.

Ask for a code review in the project's chat room.

Repo Management

• Avoid including files in source control that are specific to your development machine or process.
• Delete local and remote feature branches after merging.
• Perform work in a feature branch.
• Rebase frequently to incorporate upstream changes.
• Use a pull request for code reviews.

Pull Request Mangement

• Each pull request should pass code review and unit test before merging to master branch.
• Make use of labels to define the type of PR (Feature, Bug, Enhancement and so on).
• Always get both code and feature reivew from previous developer of the file for new changes.
• Make sure to run unit test in master branch after merging feature branch.

Use Frequently

Try to use these commands frequently while developing.

git fetch origin
git checkout master
git pull origin master
git rebase -i master (In feature branch)

Git Cheat Sheet

Download Git Cheat Code in pdf format and practice regularly.

Agile Development

Follow these techniques or best practices to maintain continues development and release

• Maintain one or more stable branch to release at any time instance.
• Run unit and feature driven test on each and every PR.
• Assign code reviewers for each module or set of developers.
• Block user's push to stable remote branch.
• Use automation jobs for continues testing and deployment process.

Other References

• Tutorial
• Code Review
• Style Guide
• Programmers Guide