Have you ever worked with a software development team? If yes, then you must know its difficulties. Source code management is the most serious difficulty that students and professionals face. This problem is significant when you are working in a centralized environment. The remote developers cannot work properly on the code in such an environment. In this scenario, GIT practices and workflows help the developer a lot.
GIT is an open-source and free distributed version control system. It can handle every kind of project, either small or large, with greater efficiency. Many students do not know about the correct use of GIT practices and workflows. Keeping this in view, today’s article is all about GIT. It will discuss all the workflows and practices in detail. In the end, you will also find information about the best practices and workflows. So, let’s start our discussion with the following question;
What Are The Best Practices Of Git?
GIT is a free open-source control system. Like every other software, GIT also has some best practices. It has become the most used versioning system due to its broad applications and useful practices. Many software development companies are adopting this to manage their software development efficiently. What makes it so popular is its practices. Hence, a brief description of the best GIT practices and workflows is as follows;
Branch out the Git
Decentralization often comes with cheap branching. Pushing code straight into the master branch does not bring any good to it. Instead, you should branch it out into two branches before sending it to the master branch. Even if you are writing a university assignment as a team, it will increase collaboration between the team and hence increase the team’s efficacy.
Adequately configure the commit authorship
Commits are the communication tools in GIT software. You should add your names and emails properly in the section. It will allow other team members to track who made the changes to the code easily.
Write descriptive and meaningful messages
As described earlier, you talk and message in the commit section. Therefore, your messages should be descriptive and meaningful. Upon making any change to the source code, you should describe it effectively. Otherwise, it will be hard for other team members to understand the change in the source code.
Commit only related work
Commit is basically communicating with your software team members. You should commit only to the related work. It also includes ‘do not use’ shorter forms as they can also be in the code. The other team members might make mistakes and take them as a part of the code.
Know the tool
As described earlier, GIT is a powerful versioning tool. There are many commands and practices. It is a good practice to learn about all the commands. You can do this by reading the GIT docs available on the web.
What Are The Different Git Workflows?
GIT practices and workflows offer many advantages. After reading the information above, you know what different practices are and how they can benefit team members. Now, let’s talk about different workflows. A brief description of the four GIT workflows is as follows;
Centralized workflow
In this workflow, the development team members work the same way they do in the subversion (SVN). But this GIT workflow has some advantages over the SVN. The first advantage is that it gives every team member a copy of the entire project. This environment lets the developers independently.
Feature branch workflow
This is the second type of GIT workflow. It tells that all the feature development should take place in a dedicated branch rather than the master branch. It is because this practice makes it easy for multiple developers to work on a single feature without disturbing the main branch.
Gitflow workflow
This workflow is particularly useful for managing larger projects. This workflow assigns different roles to different branches of the code. It also defines how and when all those branches should interact. One plus point is that you can also enjoy all the benefits of the feature branch workflow in this type of workflow.
Forking workflow
The last and the fourth flow are fundamentally different from all of the workflows above. Instead of using a single-side repository, it gives developers a server-side repository. The developers use this repository as the central codebase.
What Is The Correct Workflow In Git?
The correct workflow in all the GIT practices and workflows is the Gitflow workflow. Using this workflow means that no team member commits to the main branch. Everyone works in the smaller branches and makes changes in the code as required. This also ensures that the main code is safe and free from any interventions. During a computer science assignment writing, when the code is complete, it goes to the release branch. The code testing occurs in this branch before sending it to the master branch.
How Do I Create A Workflow In Git?
Creating a workflow in Git is easy if you know all its steps and GIT practices and workflows. Following are some of the points you should consider while creating a workflow;
- Create the braches. The Git emphasizes the creation of branches because it is also the best practice. The branches do not disturb your main code.
- Sometimes you may need to create two repositories. Also, working with two repositories makes code development easy.
- Use all the pull requests to merge the codes
- Create a shared repository between the developers for better collaboration
What Is The First Step In A Typical Git Workflow?
The first step in a typical Git workflow is obviously the creation of paths. The paths are also called branches which are separate from the main branch. All the GIT practices and workflow tell you to create branches first. The reason behind this is that you can work on your source code effectively this way. Otherwise, working in the master branch can harm your code.
Conclusion
In this article, you have learned about GIT practices and workflows. Git is a useful versioning software to assist different team members regarding software development. Unlike a centralized system, everyone can change the code in this software.
