I'm trying to choose a Git workflow that is most appropriate for our product. Here are the parameters:We do a few major releases a year, let's say 10 at the mostWe have multiple versions of our product active at the same time (some people are on v10.1, some on v11.2, etc.)We need to be able to work on multiple releases at the same time (so we could be working on v12.1, but as we get to the end of the release we start working on v12.2 at the same time)We need to be able to hotfix releases when critical bugs are foundSo far, here's the way I think it could work:Single remote repo is usedCreate branch 12.1 from masterCreate feature branches based on 12.1, commit them and merge back into 12.1, pushOnce we need to start working on future release, create a new branch 12.2 based on 12.1From then on, when working on a feature for 12.1, create branch from 12.1, commit changes, and merge into both 12.1 and 12.2, pushIf working on a feature for 12.2, create branch from 12.2, commit changes, and merge only into 12.2, pushWhen release 12.1 is completed, merge it into master and tag master branch with 12.1If a hotfix is needed, create a hotfix branch from oldest release branch that needs it, commit changes, and merge back into all release branches for that release and future releases that could be affected; if the latest stable release branch was affected, merge it into master.I have a few concerns:I'm not sure that merging hotfixes from old branches into new branches will be a smooth process, especially if there have been a lot of overlapping changes; would it be smarter to just hotfix manually in each branch in cases where it looks like there will be conflictsThe workflow models I've seen seem to not keep release branches alive much, once done the release gets merged into master, tagged, and removed. My problem with that is that I don't have a good idea how to manage the state of the release if all I have are tags in master, seems easier to hotfix in a branch and then I have a release I can always go back to that has the latest hotfix (I can even tag the hotfixes in the release). Not sure there's a way I could go back within master and somehow have a copy of the release with hotfixes applied and update that tag.Comments are appreciated on things I may have overlooked or better ways of accomplishing things given the requirements I've specified.
Appropriate Git workflow for multiple active releases while handling hotfixes
version control;git