3 Tips for Branching in Team Foundation Server
One of my readers asked me if I could provide a bit more insight on branching. I think the best thing I can do here is summarize a few tips and then point to some useful resources.
Key Tips
- Don't branch unless you need to. You can always label a release build and branch later. Use branching for isolation while doing parallel development.
- Know the common branching patterns. These include branch by feature, branch by release, and branch by team.
- Use a common folder structure for your branches. While your branching can be organic and evolve over time, a thoughtful folder structure can help.
Here's an example starting point.
/Main
/Source
/Build
/Docs
/Scripts
/TestCases
/Development
/FeatureBranch1
/FeatureBranch2
/Maintenance
/Release 1
/Release 1.1
/Release 1.2
In this case, Main is your main source tree and project assets. Development is a root level folder for isolating your features or teams (branched off your Source folder in Main).
More Information
- Video: Branching 101 with Doug Neumann - Visual Studio Team Foundation Server. Doug does a great whiteboard walkthrough of branching/merging.
- patterns & practices Source Control Practices. See the "Branch / Label / Merge" section.
- patterns & practices Source Control Q & A. See the "Branch / Label / Merge" section.
Comments
Anonymous
March 16, 2007
PingBack from http://liangwu.wordpress.com/2007/03/16/interesting-finding-03162007/Anonymous
March 19, 2007
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