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- Master branch - reflects the latest released code or the latest release candidate code (see preceding section).
- Development branches - branches where we are developing new features in preparation for a new major release. Development branches are named using the convention igb_[N]_[M] where N and M are integers (e.g. igb_8_2).
On the BioViz Web site, you'll see when we distributed compiled versions of When we distribute IGB to users, we give assign them version names such as 8.3.0 or 8.4.2. We are using this , following the naming convention of \[N].\[M]\.\[P], where N, M, and P are integers, to associate released versions with branch names. The N and M numbers refer to the development branch that was merged into the master branch before a major release. The final ".P" suffix signifies low-risk, small changes that we merged from an upcoming development branch into the stable master branch and then distributed to users as a "minor" release.
A "major" release is anything that increments either first or second version number of IGB for users (e.g., 8.3.4 to 8.4.0 is a major release). When we do a major release, we merge the development branch into the master branch, stop making changes to that now obsolete development branch, and create a new one where we make further changes.
A "minor" release is is anything that increments the final ".P" suffix version number of IGB for users (e.g., 8.3.0 to 8.3.1 is a minor release) and which requires merging a small amount of code from the development branch into the master branch.
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