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2.5 KiB
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| Version Control System |
Version Control System
Version control systems (VCS), also called Source Code Management (SCM), are tools used to track changes on files, manage version and ease collaborative file editing. There are mainly 2 types of VCS:
- Centralized Version Control System Where a central repository is authoritative. The associate architecture is client/server. The first VCS (CVS, SVN...) were Centralized Version Control System.
- Distributed Version Control System Where multiple repository exchange modification. The associate architecture is mostly peer to peer, but one repo can be declared as authoritative. The most used modern VCS (Git, Mercurial...) are Distributed Version Control System.
Why use it?
- Changes history - VCS enable the user to browse and search all the changes which are automatically recorded with useful information (date, author...) and
- Versions/tags - The user can search/retrieve specific state of the files that have been labeled with tags and version names
- Branching/Merging - Distributed Version Control System make it easy to maintain parallel branch of files and to merge them partially or totally when needed.
- Atomic operations - All modern VCS provide atomic operations: All modifications are guaranteed to succeed or fail as whole which ensure that the files are always in a consistent state.
Most popular Version Control System
- Git
Git is a Distributed Version Control System and probably the most used VCS used nowadays with Mercurial.
- Mercurial
Mercurial is a Distributed Version Control System and probably the most used VCS used nowadays with Git.
- CVS
CVS is an old SCM which was proeminent before SVN widespread. CVS and SVN are now deprecated in favor of Distributed Version Control System like Git and Mercurial.
- SVN/Subversion
SVN is an old SCM that succeeded CVS. Eventually SVN was deprecated by the wide adoption of Distributed Version Control System like Git and Mercurial