[Gllug] CVS vs RCS

Stig Brautaset stigbrau at start.no
Fri Sep 20 17:26:18 UTC 2002


On Sep 20 2002, Dave was overheard saying:
> On Fri, 2002-09-20 at 14:11, TM wrote:
> > Hi all,
> > 
> > I'm begining a new project in C and I've decided it's time
> > to manage my files in a more 'professional' way. After I
> > spoke to a few people at work, the choices seem to be either
> > using CVS or RCS to take care of my code backups.
> > 
> > I understand that RCS is meant to be used by a single user;
> > CVS when the project is a collaboration between various individuals.
> > 
> > What I haven't been able to figure out yet is if any of the two
> > software packages assumes that the computer that runs the server
> > is always on.
> > 
> > I want to have a server on my home PC running Linux (maybe duplicating
> > the server at work, running Solaris). The box at home is not always
> > switched on, like the machine at work. Can anyone tell me if this is
> > going to be a problem please?
> > 
> > All suggestions/comments are welcomed.
> 
> CVS is essentially multi-user RCS. It's well known as being a
> complicated and convoluted beast.
> 
> RCS is not designed for use across a network - indeed, nor is CVS, but
> CVS has at least had this bolted on.
> 
> CVS does not require continuous access to the server, but will require
> it for almost every operation.
> 
> An interesting alternative is Subversion - still in early stages, but it
> works.
> 
> http://subversion.tigris.org/

I'd like to add arch to that 'list'. There was a recent change of
maintainership, but you should find some information on:

	http://www.fifthvision.net/open/bin/view/Arch/WebHome

It "just works" under Debian, but does not currently run on MS
platforms, if that's important. I is very easy to learn, and supports a
range of things CVS does not. Branching and merging is easy, and
distributed operations are trivial. Make a local archive, work on it at
home, commit patches, then commit the whole lot to the main trunk. 

It is basically built up around a bunch of shell scripts and awk
programs. It has networking built in instead of added on later, as
Subversion, but it uses ftp (there's patches to let it use sftp, iirc)
for remote access. 

Stig
-- 
brautaset.org

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