one branch per maintenance version?

[David Disseldorp]

Hi,

One thing I've never quite understood, and still find a bit cumbersome
is the use of two git branches per maintenance release: one "-test"
branch and one "-stable" branch.

IIUC, the maintenance process includes staging new bug fixes in the
"-test" branch until a point release is done. The point release process
involves adding a release notes commit, tagging it, and moving the
"-stable" branch up to the latest tag.

Given that we're pretty strict regarding what makes it into a
maintenance branch, and we don't play any games with rebase/reset,
couldn't we just drop the "-stable" branch, and just continue to stage
changes in  "-test" (renamed to e.g. vX.Y-maint) until a point release
tag "blesses" a given state as stable?

Cheers, David