A traditional version control system workflow for branching and release management is not compatible with development environments that require long release cycles. When a release branch from a long release cycle is merged into a master branch, bug fixes made to the release branch and to the master branch are not merged into the development branch in a timely manner. A version control system automatically merges document versions from the release branch into the development branch when changes are merged into the release branch or the master branch, thus keeping the development current with respect to the release and master branches without formally closing the release branch.