gitworkflows - how exactly to graduate a branch?

I have a git branching model pretty much like the one described in gitworkflows http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/gitworkflows.html and here http://members.cox.net/junkio/git/MaintNotes.html

I have some doubts about how exactly to graduate a branch and what to do with commits that fix bugs that only happen when 2 different branches interact.

Specifically, I have these branches:

• production: exactly the same as what's deployed in our production server

• hotfixes: forked from the tip of 'production', where I fix bugs and later fast-forward 'production' to it (and re-deploy)

• several feature branches: every new feature is created in isolation

  开发者_开发技巧

• test: where I merge every feature branch that's mature enough

• all: where I merge every feature, no matter how new or untested it is

Say I merge feature branches F1 and F2 in that order into 'test'. It turns out that they don't play nice together, so I commit fixes C1 and C2 (directly into 'test'); I later merge a third branch F3 and continue committing fixes for bugs that happen because of these branches not interacting well (if I found a bug in one specific feature, I would fix it in it's own branch and then re-merge). I later want to graduate only F2, because F1 and F3 are not ready yet (or because the client is on a whim), so I merge that branch directly into 'production'.

What to do next?

• What to do with the bug fixes that were in 'test' that involved F2 interacting with F1 or F3 (like C1 and C2)? Do I cherry-pick them into the corresponding not-yet-graduated branch? Wouldn't this be a bit too much manual work?

• What about 'test'? Do I discard it and build it again from the new tip of 'production'? If so, how to avoid losing the bug fixes for branches that aren't yet in 'production'? cherry-pick again? Is there a way to update 'test' that does not require reset/rebase?

• Would it have been better to revert the merge(s) of F1 and F3 into 'test' and once I have only F2 in there, merge 'test' into production'? Note that this model also requires me to revert the bug fixes that relate to the branch I'm reverting.

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The complexity of this model comes from the common branch 'test', where too much operations are done.

I would rather:

• isolate the current "integration in progress" F1+F2+F3 in its own branch 'integ'
• reset test on prod (provided everybody is clear on the consequence of a reset, and is ready to reset his/her own local cloned branch test).
• merge integ on test (getting back all the work done on those three features, but based on prod)