[p4] branch topology

[William]

Whatever preceived benefits there may be to the octopus model, I
don't see why you can't get them from the first model simply by
using labels and/or branches. If development is ongoing in the
main branch, you can mark stable release points in that branch
with labels. It could save the added step of merging changes from
one or more branches before redistributing them to all branches.

It sounds like a reasonable compromise to me. -Wm

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eric Herrmann [mailto:eherrmann at portera.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2000 9:28 AM
>
> There's a debate at my company about a couple branching strategies. The
> current one is the one suggested by Perforce in their Best
> Practices paper,
> a main codeline where development occurs, branched to release branches as
> necessary. Some development branches occur, but when they have reached a
> level of maturity where they can be integrated without seriously impacting
> everyone else, they are folded back into main.
>
> The second is what I call the "octopus" model. The main branch is the
> release branch, and no development occurs in it. Feature branches are
> created in which all development happens. When a feature is
> deemed ready, it
> is committed to main. All other branches then need to pull from
> main. In my
> company anyway, there might be 5-10 feature branches at a time.