Version Control

Edmund Ochieng'
Introduction
 Introduction
➢ It is also known as revision control or alternatively,
as Source Code Management (SCM).
➢ It manages changes to documents and other

information stored in the computer as files.

➢ It is mostly used in software development where a

software development team may be working on the

same files.
➢ Changes are identified by a number or letter termed

as a “revision number” or simply as “revision”.

➢ They can work across networks allowing for

collaboration.
Merits of Version Control
 Why use Version Control?

➢ Version Control systems archive old files that

may possibly be required for resurrection.
➢ It may also be used when necessary to track

changes in files over some time using log files.

➢ Version control manages code minimizing

conflict that may result from concurrent altering,

difference in coding styles etc.
➢ Allows for rollback in case of erroneous changes

made to source code, binary files or a document.

Version Control System types

➢ Currently, there are two most widely used

version control systems which are both free and
open source-the Concurrent Versions System and
Subversion, abbreviated as CVS and SVN
respectively.
➢ SVN design started in May 2000 under the lead

of CollabNet Inc. (http://www.collab.net) as a

result of the frustrations of CVS' limitations.
CVS vs. SVN
 CVS vs. SVN

➢Despite the fact that SVN is no perfect

replacement for CVS, it solves most CVS
problems which include but are not limited to:
1. CVS is slower as it sends more information over
the network.
2. CVS stores files and nothing else unlike SVN
which can store binary and documents as well.
3. CVS has poor internal structure with plenty of
historical fixes most of which have been solved in
SVN.
 CVS vs. SVN (contd.)

For this and other reasons, SVN is found to be

better suited for software version control over
CVS however, many claim CVS and SVN are
incomparable. Doing so, would be like comparing
C++ and Java programming languages.
Learning SVN
 Subversion components

The following are the components of subversion:

svn - Command line client program.
svnversion -R eports the version of items in the
repository.
svnadmin - Tool for creating, tweaking or repairing
a svn repository.
The Fundamental Problem

How will the System allow users to

share information, without interfering
with each others work?
 File sharing techniques

a) Lock-modify-Unlock solution
This technique allows one person to modify a file
at a time using locks.

b) Copy-Modify-Merge solution
This technique involves creating a working copy
for all svn clients which are merged later on
commit.
REFERENCES
 References

➢ Version Control with Subversion

by Ben Collins-Sussman et al

➢ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revision_control

➢ http://svnbook.redbean.com
Basic Usage
 Basic usage
Create a repository
This is the process of creating a repository where the
projects would be stored.
$ svnadmin create /var/svn/repos

Importing a project
svn import copies an unversioned copy of files to
the repository.
$ svn import mytree file:///var/svn/repos/[project] -m "Initial import"
Adding mytree/foo.c
Adding mytree/bar.c
Committed revision 1.
 Basic usage(contd.)

Initial Checkout
Initial checkout involves creating of a working copy
of a project. Normally done on the clients system.
$ svn+ssh checkout http://192.168.0.120/repos/svn/trunk
A mytree/foo.c
A mytree/bar.c
Checked out revision 1.

There exist a plethora of other commands not

covered in this section.
Commit changes