From 2b323fea7e639e226eacf6a19699ee87b0204f47 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Grzegorz Adam Hankiewicz <gradha@imap.cc>
Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2014 10:14:08 -0800
Subject: [PATCH] Created Official branches (markdown)

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 Official-branches.md | 84 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 84 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 Official-branches.md

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+Official branches
+=================
+
+**This is a Work In Progress. Discuss on the IRC channel**.
+
+There are two official branches: *stable* and *devel*. The *stable* branch is
+a public facing branch which only contains whatever has been publicly released
+as a zip/exe/installer/whatever and linked from
+http://nimrod-lang.org/download.html. The purpose of the *stable* branch is
+being able to *react* to environment changes outside of the normal development
+cycle. By keeping an *untainted* source code branch *hotfixes* can be issued if
+necessary.
+
+The *devel* branch is a development branch where code scheduled for the next
+stable is scheduled. Code **not meant to be** in the next stable release should
+be put in a third branch, named at will by the developer in charge of it.
+During normal development, code is added to *devel*, and contributors make
+pull requests based off of *devel*.
+
+When a *hotfix* has to be issued, a branch is created off of the *stable*
+branch, necessary commits are added to it, and then it is merged into *stable*
+to be released publicly (or maybe after a delay to allow other possible
+hotfixes to go in that maintenance release) after tagging. Then the *stable*
+branch is merged into *devel* so that the hotfix is carried over.
+
+When a normal release is to be done, *devel* is merged into *stable* and
+tagged with the release version.
+
+Usage cases
+===========
+
+The *stable* branch doesn't exist yet. For the purposes of these examples
+please run the following commands to create it:
+
+	$ git checkout v0.9.2
+	$ git checkout -b stable
+
+In the future, *stable* will be the current *master*.
+
+Quick web update
+----------------
+
+Let's suppose the web, which is generated through ``koch web`` [needs
+updating](https://github.com/Araq/Nimrod/issues/750) but *devel* already
+contains new files or updated APIs and thus running ``koch web`` in *devel*
+would create the *wrong* stable documentation. First create a hotfix branch
+based off of *stable*:
+
+	$ git checkout stable
+	$ git checkout -b hotfix_web_udpate_750
+
+Now, commit to this branch the necessary changes. In this case we have the
+change already on *devel*, so we can run:
+
+	$ git cherry-pick 814e441341245f7a7105c426cf6edcf3aa0edd78
+
+Presumably this is all we need, so merge the hotfix branch into stable and tag
+for release.
+
+	$ git checkout stable
+	$ git merge hotfix_web_update_750
+	$ git branch -d hotfix_web_update_750
+	$ git tag vX.X.X
+
+Don't forget to merge back into *devel*:
+
+	$ git checkout devel
+	$ git merge stable
+
+Even in this case where you have picked commits form *devel* it makes sense
+for git, it will record and empty merge with the metadata saying both branches
+contain the same change despite their hashes being different. This helps in the
+future for the merge of the stable release.
+
+Normal release
+--------------
+
+The normal release is easy:
+
+	$ git checkout stable
+	$ git merge devel
+	$ git tag vX.X.X
+
+And development continues in *devel*.