git-flow vs. normal git commands

Question

I've read a couple of information about git-flow, but still don't understand why it should be used instead of plain git commands. To me it looks like it propagates a (fairly complicated) branch-setup. OK, this should be easily adoptable. Git-flow also adds some higher-level commands around the lower-level, normal git commands.

Could someone please explain in only a few words the benefits of using git-flow over using plain git commands?

Answer 1

I believe git-flow allows you to implement a certain process within the dev team. It enforces certain practices such as naming conventions for your branches and assists with the flow from development, to release, to master.

git-flow doesn't offer anything that basic git commands can't do. With the start and finish commands it abstracts away the merging and deleting.

Benefits are:

• enforces a process (flow) by having known branch types: master, develop, release, hotfix
• standardizes branch naming conventions
• abstracts certain git commands for merging and deleting

Answer 2

Git Flow follows the branching model described in A successful branching model. Of course you can do all that with standard Git commands but Git Flow just encapsulates some of the conventions, especially naming related ones, into additional commands that just help to follow the branching model.