How to hotfix older branch when using 1 deployment project?

[Rowan vdh]

Hi,

When working with a single deployment project, what is the recommended approach to deal with hotfixes on older production branches? We are using separate build plans for each production branch, and are struggling with not being able to link multiple build plans to a single deployment project.

E.g.

Production branches -> Prod-2.1, Prod-2.2, Prod-2.3
Deployment project (containing all Production and QA environments), linked to Prod-2.3

We want to update Prod-2.2 with a hotfix, and create a release from it.

The only options seem to be:
1. Use separate build plans for production branches. This would require manually switching the linked build plan whenever you want to create a release from a different branch.
2. Have all production branches as plan branches. This lets you create releases directly from multiple branches. However plan branches seem to be intended for short-lived branches, and the Build Dashboard hides their status & actions by default, which is not ideal.

Both of these options have drawbacks, and do not seem to be using the features in their intended manner.

Thanks

[Rowan vdh · Accepted solution]

Spoke to Atlassian Support regarding this. Plan branches seem like the best option for now, despite the drawbacks.

Related open feature requests that would help resolve this situation:

• https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/BAM-14419
• https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/BAM-13600

[Alex Soto]

If you are using totally separate build plans (instead of plan branches) then I think you are out of luck, because that's not the way to do things.

If however you are using Plan Branches, navigate to your deployment project, click deploy, create new release from build result, select the plan branch.

Best of luck,

Alex