Going Out On A Limb (How To Work With Branches And Survive)

Branches are simultaneously one of the most important and most easily misused features of CVS. Isolating risky or disruptive changes onto a separate line of development until they stabilize can be immensely helpful. If not properly managed, however, branches can quickly propel a project into confusion and cascading chaos, as people lose track of what changes have been merged when.

• Some Principles For Working With Branches
• Merging Repeatedly Into The Trunk
• The Dovetail Approach -- Merging In And Out Of The Trunk
• The Flying Fish Approach -- A Simpler Way To Do It
• Branches And Keyword Expansion -- Natural Enemies