branchshelling

Branchshelling is a term that emerged in the context of software development, specifically related to the practice of creating and managing branches within version control systems like Git. It describes the act of aggressively or excessively creating new branches for minor or temporary changes, often leading to a complex and potentially unmanageable branching structure. This can occur when developers create a new branch for every small bug fix, feature experiment, or even a simple code review modification.

The implications of excessive branchshelling can include increased overhead in terms of merging, code review, and tracking. It can make it difficult to identify the main line of development and can lead to confusion about which branches are active and which are obsolete. While branching is a fundamental and powerful tool for parallel development, isolating changes, and facilitating experimentation, branchshelling represents an inefficient or disorganized application of this technique. Developers and teams often aim for a more streamlined branching strategy, such as Gitflow or GitHub Flow, to mitigate the negative effects of over-branching. The goal is to leverage the benefits of branching without creating unnecessary complexity.