This page aims to give users and developers a basic overview of the branching system we're using as we continue development on the Splunk SDK for Java. While we will attempt to follow it as closely as possible, this document serves as a description of guidelines rather than a description of rules.

By and large, we are using the Git Flow model of branching. Rather than repeating it here, you can read an excellent (and well worthwhile) description on the the original author's page:

• Original Description
• Git Plugin

The following list is a description of the main types of branches we will have, and what it means to those working with the SDK.

• master: this is the main branch of the repository, and is the one that vistors will see when they visit the repository page on GitHub by default. In general, it will always reflect the most up to date release. Our goal is that cloning from master should always be possible and stable.

• develop: this is the branch where active work for the next release is. It should be generally stable, and if you're actively working on developing the Splunk SDK for Java or want the latest and greatest, this is where you want to be.

• feature/*: these are "topic" branches, where larger features or experimental ones might be staged. There is no guarantee on when they will be merged back into develop (if ever)

• release/*: this is the release staging branch. Once the work in develop is done for a certain release, we will move it to a release staging branch for more testing and polishing. These are nearly stable branches.

We might have a variety of other branches, but these are the main ones. If you have any questions, please get in touch with us.