To understand Git branch naming convention, we'll begin by examining what each concept entails; git branch, naming, convention, also iteral meanings where necessary.
Git Branch: A branch represents an independent line of development, they can be thought of as a directory containing a new/separate version (in most cases a unique feature) of the main project, it's workflow and commit history.
Naming: this literally means assigning a means of identification to something; an object, animal, person e.t.c.
Convention: convention simple refers to a usual way of doing things
Git Branch Naming Convention simply put, refers top a usual way of assigning a means of identification to an updated version of a project. Although we have to note that there is no single right way of naming git branches and often naming a branch is dependent on an organization's preferred approach and specification but it is very essential that an assigned name must clearly describe what update the branch contains and what aspect of the project it affects.
How Best To Name a Git Branch?
I used to be nonchalant and paid very little attention when it comes naming git branches until my second job experience where we were prompted top follow a certain syntax as shown thus;
feature_description/component_name/feature_name
It took a while to adapt to but it eventually made sense. This syntax contains three parts (can be more or less):Feature_description, component_name and feature_name
. Feature_Description basically describes the type of update done on a branch, this can be bug fixing, new feature addition and so on. Component_name describes the file/components where such update is executed while feature_name refers to the new feature added or bug fixed i.e the actual commit. You may have also noticed the forward slash (/), they just act as common separators for each information; hyphen (-) can also be used as an alternative, it all depends on an organization's preferred syntax as mentioned earlier.
Based on the above exposition, the branch name bugfix/home/Navbar would easily translate to Bug Fix on the navbar element in the Home component and other commits will be recorded on this branch. similarly, a branch name: feature/dashboard/users Could be interpreted as new feature, Users, added to dashboard component. All commits to this branch would be a commit to the Users component, a child of the dashboard component. and there you have it!
For larger projects involving more than one contributor to a branch, it may be reasonable to include author's name, so as to easily trace who made what changes.
The importance of Git branching cannot be over-emphasized and in order to effectively and correctly manage branches, one essential factor is to ensure the existence of a consistent git branch naming convention. Always remember to keep it concise and descriptive!