Branch Workflow Simulation

Goals

• Create and switch branches with git checkout -b
• Make commits on a branch without affecting main
• Merge a branch back into main with git merge
• Delete a merged branch to keep the repo clean

Prerequisites

• git init, add, commit (Create Repository Workflow)
• Understanding that branches are independent lines of work

Steps

2. 1

   Set up main with a base commit

   Create a repository and make one commit on the default main branch. This is the stable base that your feature branch will build on.

   CodeCopy

   mkdir branch-sim
   cd branch-sim
   git init
   echo "# Branch Sim" > README.md
   git add .
   git commit -m "Initial commit"

   Expected result

   A repository on main with one commit.

4. 2

   Create and switch to a feature branch

   Run git checkout -b add-greeting to create a new branch and switch to it in one step. Commits made here will not affect main until you merge.

   CodeCopy

   git checkout -b add-greeting

   Expected result

   Git prints "Switched to a new branch 'add-greeting'".

   Show hint
6. 3

   Make a commit on the feature branch

   Add a new file and commit it on the feature branch. Because you are on add-greeting, main is untouched — this is the whole point of branching.

   CodeCopy

   echo "print('hi from feature branch')" > greet.py
   git add greet.py
   git commit -m "Add greeting script on feature branch"

   Expected result

   A commit exists on add-greeting; main still has only the initial commit.

8. 4

   Switch back to main and merge

   Run git checkout main to return to the main branch, then git merge add-greeting to bring the feature commit in. After merging, main has the same files as the branch.

   CodeCopy

   git checkout main
   git merge add-greeting

   Expected result

   main now contains greet.py; git log shows both commits.

10. 5

    Delete the merged branch

    Run git branch -d add-greeting to delete the branch. The -d flag only deletes fully merged branches, so it is safe — no work is lost.

    CodeCopy

    git branch -d add-greeting
    git branch
    git log --oneline

    Expected result

    Only main remains; the log shows both commits on main.

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