The project has one “master” where all the new code is committed (unreleased versions) while released versions are tagged on master and then maintained in their own branches (named 1.0.x, 1.1.x, 1.2.x, ….).

Process

1. As soon as a minor release is finalized (e.g we released 2.0.0) we tag it on master
2. Then we create the related support branch, in this case named 2.0.x, with version set to 2.0.1-SNAPSHOT. Hotfixes for 2.0.x will go here.
3. The master branch is then where 2.1.x new minor release development begins, and the POM version is set at 2.1.0-SNAPSHOT
4. When 2.1.0 is final, the process starts again from point #1.

Releases and their version numbers will strictly follow a Semantic Versioning policy.

Rif: https://www.softinstigate.com/blog/2015/10/08/better-branching-model/