Engineering Craft › Branching & Releases

Release Branch

A branch stabilized for shipping a specific version.

Also known as: release/* branch, stabilization branch

A release branch is a branch cut from the main line when a version is ready to stabilize. Development on main can continue, while the release branch receives only the fixes needed to ship safely. A version tag marks the exact commit that was released.

git checkout -b release/1.4 main        # cut the branch from main
# ...fix bugs on release/1.4...
git tag v1.4.0                          # mark the released commit

Keeping the branch narrow is the point. New features stay on main and go into a later release, so the release is predictable, and testers can focus on what changed.

The trade-off is that fixes have to travel. Every bug fixed on the release branch must also reach main, or the bug comes back in the next release. Supporting several release lines at once multiplies that work, and each line needs its own testing.

The classic mistake is fixing a bug on the release branch and forgetting to bring it back to main. The next version then ships with the bug again. Apply the fix to both, using cherry-pick when it’s a small change, or merge when the branch is in sync. Record what each release contains in its release notes, so the difference between versions is easy to see.