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(cvs.info)Branches motivation

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Next: Creating a branch Up: Branching and merging

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What branches are good for
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   Suppose that release 1.0 of tc has been made.  You are continuing to
develop tc, planning to create release 1.1 in a couple of months.
After a while your customers start to complain about a fatal bug.  You
check out release 1.0 (Note: Tags) and find the bug (which turns out
to have a trivial fix).  However, the current revision of the sources
are in a state of flux and are not expected to be stable for at least
another month.  There is no way to make a bugfix release based on the
newest sources.

   The thing to do in a situation like this is to create a "branch" on
the revision trees for all the files that make up release 1.0 of tc.
You can then make modifications to the branch without disturbing the
main trunk.  When the modifications are finished you can elect to
either incorporate them on the main trunk, or leave them on the branch.