Pragmatic Version Control using CVS

by Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt

CVS was a very popular and widely used version control system which has since been replaced with newer systems such as Subversion and git. However, since CVS is still in use by some legacy projects we’ve made this PDF available for you.

For various technical reasons, the eBook version is a PDF: epub and mobi versions of this title will NOT be available.

Pragmatic Version Control using CVS

• Keep project assets safe — never lose a great idea
• Know how to UNDO bad decisions — no matter when they were made
• Learn how to share code safely, and work in parallel
• See how to avoid costly code freezes
• Manage 3rd party code
• Understand how to go back in time, and work on previous versions

Imagine you’re using the world’s most sophisticated word processor: it has every function imaginable, except one. For some reason, they forgot to add support for an UNDO command. Think how carefully and slowly you’d have to type—especially as you got near the end of a large document. One mistake, and you’d have to start over. Version control gives your team a project-wide undo button: nothing is final, and mistakes are easily rolled back.

With version control, you’ll never again lose a good idea because someone overwrote your file edits. You can always find out easily who made what changes to the source code—and why.

You no longer have to freeze development when producing a release: a version control system allows you to support multiple releases of your software at the same time, so you can continue with the main line of development.

Version control is a project-wide time machine. Now you can dial in a date and see exactly what the project looked like yesterday, last Tuesday or even last year.

AND IT’S EASY TO DO. Using a version control system does not have to be complicated, or time-consuming, or expensive. Pragmatic Version Control can show you how to set up and use a version control system effectively and inexpensively.

• Errata, typos, suggestions

Releases:

• P4.0 2005/11/24
• P3.0 2005/11/24
• P2.0 2005/11/24
• P1.0 2005/11/24

• Table of Contents
• What Is Version Control?
• Managing 3rd Party Code