Release Management Made Easy: Creating a Release Branch and Tag in Git (Using terminal or local machine)

Creating a release branch and tag in Git is an essential step when it comes to releasing a new version of your application or package. It helps you keep track of the changes you make and makes it easy to revert to a previous version if needed. In this article, we’ll go through the steps required to create a release branch and tag in Git.

Step 1: Checkout the Main Branch

Before creating a new release branch, make sure you’re on the latest version of the main branch by running:

git checkout main
git pull origin main

This ensures that your release branch is based on the most up-to-date code.

Step 2: Create a Release Branch

To create a new release branch, run:

git checkout -b release-v2.0.0

This creates a new branch called “release-v2.0.0” and switches you to that branch.

Step 3: Update the Version Number

Open the package.json or other relevant file that contains the version number, and update it to the new version number (in this example, 2.0.0).

Step 4: Apply Changes

If you’ve already made changes in other branches, you can apply those changes to the release branch by merging them or cherry-picking them. For example, to merge changes from a branch called “features-branch”, run:

git merge features-branch

Alternatively, you can cherry-pick specific commits by running:

git cherry-pick <commit-hash>

Step 5: Commit and Push Changes

Once you’ve applied all the necessary changes, commit your changes with a descriptive message:

git add .
git commit -m "Bump version to 2.0.0"
git push origin release-v2.0.0

This pushes your changes to the remote release branch.

Step 6: Create a Release Tag

Now, it’s time to create a release tag for your new version by running:

git tag v2.0.0
git push origin v2.0.0

This creates a new tag called “v2.0.0” and pushes it to the remote repository.

Step 7: Merge the Release Branch to the Main

Finally, merge your release branch into the main branch by running:

git checkout main
git merge release-v2.0.0

This merges your release branch into the main branch.

And that’s it! You’ve successfully created a release branch and tag in Git. Following these steps will help you keep track of your code changes and make it easy to revert to a previous version if needed.

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