branch
Also called: branches
A named, movable line of commits: a parallel version of the project where work happens without touching the main branch.
A branch lets someone work on a change without disturbing everyone else. It starts from a commit on the main branch and collects new commits of its own. When the work is ready, the branch is merged back, usually through a pull request. Branch names often describe the work: fix/checkout-button, feature/subscription.
Learn it in the course
- Why teams keep history: version control without fear · What version control is, how Git differs from GitHub, and why looking around a repository can't break anything.
- Repository and commits: reading a repo page · A GitHub repository page from top to bottom, what a single commit page tells you, and what makes a good commit message.
- Reading history: messages, diffs and blame · How to open a file's history, read a diff line by line and use blame to trace any line back to its commit, pull request and issue.