Branching and merging

Branching is a core concept in Git that significantly enhances the development workflow, making it more flexible and robust, especially in team environments. It’s essential for managing large codebases and collaborating effectively on software projects.

A branch represents an independent line of development. You can think of it as a way to request a brand new working directory, staging area, and project history. New commits are recorded in the history of the branch, which results in a fork in the project’s history.

Multiple branches allow different features or fixes to be developed in parallel. Changes made in a branch do not affect other branches, allowing you to work in an isolated sandbox.

Common uses of branches include:

• Feature branching: Each new feature is developed in its own branch and is merged back into the main branch upon completion.
• Release branching: When a version of the software is ready for release...