Branches, Tags, and the Trunk -- and Stem

On a daily basis, developers in branches merge changes from the trunk into their branchMerge branch features back into trunk when you're ready to deployBug fixes are performed on the trunk then tagged and re-deployed

http://weblogs.asp.net/bsimser/archive/2008/05/06/day-to-day-with-subversion.aspx

So, development mostly occurs in the trunk (with the exception of cases where isolation e.g. of new features necessitates separation through branching), with branches corresponding to major releases (1.1, 1.2...).

The important takeaway is that for every main version of the software you are maintaining, you have a branch that contains the latest version of code for that version.

gregmac - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16142/what-do-branch-tag-and-trunk-really-mean


Stem technique of version control: http://www.ronaldwidha.net/2009/10/04/branch-management-pattern-part-2-development-on-branch-stemming/

Never commit to master.The way of working that has worked well for us is the “never commit to master” approach (replace “master” with “default” if you use mercurial). 

http://www.stateofcode.com/2013/05/never-commit-to-master/