Continuous integration and continuous delivery with git-flow
We have been doing continuous integration and continuous delivery since a while with Subversion commits as the pipelines triggers. Recently, we started using git in some projects with git-flow and we are trying to decide which of the branches of git-flow should we use to trigger the continuous integration and continous delivery pipelines.
Here are two approaches:
1. Use develop branch
Problem: With git-flow we are supposed to deploy the release (or master) branch in production, so we would have to build two different pipelines, one for continuous integration (branch develop) and one for continuous delivery (branch master). This could introduce bugs in production because the version in production will not be the same that the one in other environments (integration, test, staging).
2. Use master branch:
Problem: This way, we would not have a truly continuous integration, since changes to these branches are pushed not very frequently.
Which is the rigth branch to use in the pipelines?
Answer
Git-flow and continous integration are, by definition, incompatible. Branches are a mechanism for delaying integration: when you commit to a branch other than master (or trunk, if you come from Subversion), you are avoiding continous integration. Doing continous integration is simple, but not easy.