Why need Develop Branch in GitFlow

Question

We know git-flow like this Source: Vincent Driessen

I don't know why need develop branch, what probles will cause without develop branch ?why not merage feature branches to release branches directly?

Answer 1

Actually, I wouldn't say that the given answer properly explains, why the develop branch and the master branch are both needed to achieve a releasable state. The version tags created on each release also reflect the releasable state and in Git you can always create a new branch based on these tags subsequently if needed.

In fact, there are multiple blog posts that criticize the Git Flow model and propose a more convenient branching model, which only uses one main branch, i. e. the "master". Here are the references:

https://reallifeprogramming.com/git-process-that-works-say-no-to-gitflow-50bf2038ccf7 https://www.endoflineblog.com/gitflow-considered-harmful

Thus, the actual answer to this question should be: You don't necessarily need the develop branch if you adapt your workflow as described in the linked posts. Still, you wouldn't merge your features into the release branches, but to the master branch, as you want them to be available in the future versions as well.