5.2. Which way to branch

There are many different ways to branch source code. What seems to be the most common method is to use the HEAD (which is the default CVS mode of "no tag") as the development version, and then make a branch when a stable release is to be made.

That model doesn't fit my development style at the current time, so I use the HEAD default branch as my stable live version, and use other tags (like DEV1 and DEV_REALLY_UNSTABLE) for my development. You will probably find a method that fits your particular style as you learn more about CVS.

You will probably find that you are merging (or "folding") most or all of your development branch back into your stable branch frequently. This is because unlike traditional programming where products are launched every two or three years with new features, web sites often have little fixes and new features added every day or every few weeks, with new "releases" happening constantly (though not all web sites follow that trend). The flexibility is there to branch the source for quite some time to work on a very complex feature or complete redesign before bringing it to the live site.

Additionally, I prefer to not create a new branch every time I merge, though some do not mind the overhead.