Revision control system tutorial

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Introduction

This short user tutorial should help you to understand how to download software from various revision control systems.

Revision control system (RCS) or Version control system (VCS) or Source code management (SCM) stands for systems that allow software developers to

Purpose of source control


Sometimes we call it "version control". Sometimes we call it "SCM", which stands for either "software configuration management" or "source code management". Sometimes we call it "source control". [...] By any of these names, source control is an important practice for any software development team. The most basic element in software development is our source code. A source control tool offers a system for managing this source code.

There are many source control tools, and they are all different. However, regardless of which tool you use, it is likely that your source control tool provides some or all of the following basic features:

  • It provides a place to store your source code.
  • It provides a historical record of what you have done over time.
  • It can provide a way for developers to work on separate tasks in parallel, merging their efforts later.
  • It can provide a way for developers to work together without getting in each others' way.
Source Control HOWTO, retrieved 16:49, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

{{quotation|Revision control (also known as version control (system) (VCS), source control or (source) code management (SCM)) is the management of multiple revisions of the same unit of information. It is most commonly used in engineering and software development to manage ongoing development of digital documents like application source code, art resources such as blueprints or electronic models, and other projects that may be worked on by a team of people. Changes to these documents are usually identified by incrementing an associated number or letter code, termed the "revision number", "revision level", or simply "revision" and associated historically with the person making the change. A simple form of revision control, for example, has the initial issue of a drawing assigned the revision number "1". When the first change is made, the revision number is incremented to "2" and so on. (Wikipedia, retrieved 16:49, 15 October 2008 (UTC))

Popular open source systems
  • [CVS. There exist several variants of this software. It was once upon a time the most popular system and therefore still being used.
  • [Subversion. Subversion was designed as a CVS replacement and is todays (2008) most popular system in the open source community.

Installing a client

In order to use a RCS, you need to install some software on your computer. There exist several sorts of programs:

  • Command line tools (I find them most practical for just checking out something)
  • Extensions for IDEs and text editors
  • Stand-alone GUI programs. A good Subversion client is eSvn

CVS command-line client

In Ubuntu Linux (and other Debian-based systems) type: 

 apt-get install cvs

Subversion command-line client

Under Ubuntu, type: 

sudo apt-get install subversion

How to get software from CVS

=== Checking out a release branch (e.g. the software you want)

Most simple version
cvs checkout URL path


How to get software from Subversion (SVN)

=== Checking out a release branch (e.g. the software you want) 

svn checkout URL path

Links

Tutorials

Manuals

Software links

List of RCS systems
Lists of clients
CVS
Subversion

Tutorials for revision control system administrators

(In case you plan to have your own ...)

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