What is a git topic branch?

Question

What is a git topic branch? Does it differ from an ordinary branch in some way? Are there any branches that are not topic branches?

Answer 1

https://github.com/dchelimsky/rspec/wiki/Topic-Branches explains this well:

A “topic” branch is a separate branch that you use when working on a single “topic” (a bug fix, a new feature, or an experimental idea). Working on a topic branch instead of directly on top of “master” is recommended because:

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So, for all of these reasons it’s recommended to use a topic branch for preparing submissions even for simple contributions like single-commit bugfixes and the like.

This sample also gives examples. Which actually got me to thinking, this is probably what most shops do already. All of the agile projects I've ever been with do. I upvoted th "It's not a technical term" because I feel this hits the nail on the head.