Meaning and purpose of RCS
Version or Revision Control Systems are invented to facilitate state management of software applications. This kind of program allows to change information back and forth. Therefore, it allows software programmers to revert any damaging modifications if it works in desired as well as unexpected manner. This tweak is achieved as version control systems(VCS) possess logic that allows storage of multiple versions of the same digital file, provide access to past versions in case of necessity, capture details about all authors of a file and track changes made by them. Most importantly, version or revision control systems establish a centralized repository that stores all files and documents of a project including non technical information or comments. Therefore, developers don’t need to care that he is working on the updated file as this kind of software takes responsibility for synchronization and presenting of the latest copy. In general, data in a repository is stored as files but sophisticated database management systems like RDBMS or NoSQL may be used are used to manage the data.
Popular RCS products available in the market and their benefits
At its core, any Revision control software is simply a set of programs written in specific computer language. Internally the revision number identifies specific state of application with certain changes. This type of tool brings extra ordinary support for web or software development.
Given below are recognized revision control softwares which are widely adopted due to features covered by each one.
GIT
It is also referred to as Global Information Tracker. As open source and number one VCS application, GIT delivers fascinating sustenance to maintain large scale distributed development projects. With GIT enabled systems, each developer is provided with actual copy of whole project. Then revised systems are under-the-hood merged or adjusted so that it would form an integrated web application that contains only upgraded or latest code and configuration files.
Other prolific features of GIT are
- Liberty to allocate distributed teams so that more than one authoritative sources can scribe and compose
- multiple workflows
- ability to update from a remote branch
etc.
Thus development process is easy and gets unparallel speed.
Clearcase
If you are truly enterprise level organization that has to handle hundreds to thousands of developers, Clearcase is the way to go. It is reduced overhead or maintenance that you earn by employing proprietary softwares like Clearcase, that not only saves time but demands less technicality or less skilled workers can use it without any special training needed. It renders mature environment to manage source code.
There are two operating models catered from the company –
- UCM , it is an out-of-the -box model in the sense that you can leverage few functions as soon as you deploy it. No customization or configuration is necessary.
- Basic model or Base Clearcase. While it requires time and efforts before you can enjoy its rewards, it equally offers more flexibility.
Some of the unmatched functionalities of Clearcase are that it can easily handle sizable files and large repositories. Interestingly, as it is endorsed by many private and public groups all over the world, so Clearcase is officially or from the first source team, supported for integration with a wide range of software products. However, there is one catch, in comparison with tier 1 RCS like GIT, you may find it slow to perform but it gives unprecedented reliability, and ensures that there remains no chances of rework.
CVS
This is an open source, free revision control system. CVS is by default attached or bundled with a plethora of IDEs like Eclipse and Netbeans. Keep no confusions in mind and start using CVS for your team as it has liberal GNU General Public Licence. It follows Client/Server architecture.
Here, multiple clients connect to the server and “check out” the version of specific codefile with respect to the same file that exist on their local disk. Once a programmer has completed modifications and the contents are saved, they commit the changes in repository.
Thus, varied tools hosted on intranet to ease the development enable teams to work much more efficiently. Collaboration between team members is achieved. Although main purpose of RCS system is to provide you with continuous synchronization, they also nurture tons of facilities on top of that, like features for various means of communication e.g. chat or video call buttons in its user interfaces, comments to give hints for upcoming developer, email notifications etc. Fewer premium solutions pack even more tools to provide like time tracker, testing of language semantics and logs maintenance.
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