What is GitFlow? How does it work?

GitFlow is a popular branching model in Git that helps organize the development and release process.

Main branches:

• master — always contains stable code ready for release.
• develop — integration branch where all new features are gathered before release.

Additional branches:

• feature/ — for developing new features, branched from develop and merged back into develop after completion.
• release/ — for preparing a release, branched from develop, merged into master and develop after testing.
• hotfix/ — for urgent bug fixes in production, branched from master and merged back into master and develop after fixing.

It works as follows: a developer creates a feature branch, implements a function, then merges it into develop. When enough functionality is accumulated, a release branch is created for final testing and bug fixing. After the release, changes go into master. If a critical bug is found in production, a hotfix branch is created, fixes are quickly applied, and merged into both master and develop.

This allows parallel development, release preparation, and urgent fixes without conflicts.