[NBLUG/talk] Recommendations for Version Control?

Troy Arnold troy at zenux.net
Sun Nov 2 10:32:19 PST 2008


On Sat, Nov 01, 2008 at 12:34:08PM -0700, Robert Hayes wrote:
> 
> What can you recommend for a single user, possibly two workstation (desk and 
> laptop) version control app that will backup easily. I'd much prefer a GUI 
> interface if that isn't a dramatic drawback.

The only scm systems I have direct experience with are CVS, Subversion and
Git.  CVS sucks, Git is cool, but better suited for multiple distributed
developers... but Subversion fits your request pretty much perfectly.  It's
easy to pick up, and can be backed up easily.  If you look in the
subversion repository, all the revisions are stored as single files in the
'revs' subdirectory.  This means it backs up over rsync with a minimum
amount of file transfer.  Also, each repository stores *everything* in one
directory tree.

There are excellent docs online at: http://svnbook.red-bean.com/ You can
get through chapters 1 and 2 in an afternoon and that is enough working
knowledge to be on your way.

While Subversion stores just the diffs on text-based files, if you change a
binary file it will create a whole new copy copy in the repo.  There might
be another tool that's more space efficient for binary files.

As for GUI's?  The CLI is so simple and character efficient that I've never
felt the need.  A fellow developer uses Eclipse and a quick scan with apt
shows a bunch of clients, though who knows if any of them are good.  I
did play around with Coda for OS X, and was quite impressed.  Those Panic
folks make good software.


-t




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