[[workinabranch]]
Work In A Branch
================

Working in a branch instead of on `master` I have found to be a productive way
to get things done with minimal interference from other commiters.

Working this way lets you track upstream changes locally, update your local
master, and work on multiple subjects simultaneously without any conflicts,
and without being forced to perform a merge/rebase as soon as changes occur
upstream.
[source,bash]
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  git checkout master
  # create a new branch to work in.
  git checkout -b updates
  # hack on updates.
  # commit changes to update branch
  git commit -m "Some message"
  # return to master
  git checkout master
  # update master from upstream
  git pull -u -v

  # create another branch from master for a quick-fix
  git checkout -b quickfix
  # hack on quick fix
  # commit change to quick fix branch
  git commit -m "Emergency Commit set"
  # return to master
  git checkout master
  # check for changes from upstream.
  git pull -u -v
  # Damn, updates happened.
  git checkout quickfix
  # rebase quickfix on top of master
  git rebase -i master
  git checkout master
  # check again for upstream changes
  git pull -u -v
  # Yay, no upstream changes, time to publish the changes in quickfix
  # --ff-only is good to prevent anarchy
  git merge --ff-only quickfix
  git push upstream master
  git branch -d quickfix

  # return to work on updates
  git checkout updates
  # move updates to be after master before continuing to hack
  git rebase -i master
  # more hacking on updates
  git checkout master
  # check for upstream changes
  git pull -u -v
  # Yay, no upstream changes!
  git merge --ff-only updates
  git push upstream master
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