A Branching/Merging Strategy for Parallel Software Development

Authors

Jim Buffenbarger, Boise State UniversityFollow
Kirk Gruell, Hewlett-Packard Company

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

1999

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48253-9_7

Abstract

In many software configuration management (SCM) systems, branching and merging are fundamental operations, supporting isolation and integration (respectively). Unfortunately, the obvious branching and merging strategies have unpleasant consequences. This paper presents a less obvious branching and merging strategy, for parallel software development, which does not suffer these consequences. In particular, it presents a way of updating an active branch from a new baseline. This strategy can be described as “merging at a label.” It has been successful at managing unnecessary branch proliferation and change isolation in an industrial SCM environment.

Comments

System Configuration Management: 19th International Symposium, SCM-9 Toulouse, France, September 5–7, 1999 Proceedings is volume 1675 of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science series.

Publication Information

Buffenbarger, Jim and Gruell, Kirk. (1999). "A Branching/Merging Strategy for Parallel Software Development". System Configuration Management: 19th International Symposium, SCM-9 Toulouse, France, September 5–7, 1999 Proceedings, 86-99.