If you're a programmer, web site developer, writer, or
other professional dealing with large numbers of files, you
know the pain of trying to manage multiple revisions of
multiple files, especially when you are collaborating with
other people. Who changed what file when? What specific
collection of file revisions combine to make up the
shipping version of a product? Will your edits to a file
conflict with someone else's edits to the same file? These
are just some of the questions you'll face. CVS (Concurrent
Version System) is open source's answer.
CVS is a source code management tool that first allows
you to create a repository for files that you are
collaboratively working on with other users. You and other
users can then check out files you wish to edit, make
whatever changes are necessary, and check the files back in
again. Where possible, CVS automatically merges changes
when two or more users edit the same file. CVS identifies
changes from multiple sources that conflict with each other
and that can't be resolved automatically. In either case,
you are assured that edits to a file are never
inadvertently overwritten or lost.
CVS is a versatile tool, and it has many capabilities
beyond those just described. For example, you can tag the
specific versions of source code files that combine to make
up a given release of a software product. This makes it
possible at any later date to check out those same files
and recreate the release.
In Essential CVS, Jennifer Vesperman takes you
through the basics of using CVS and shows you how to put
the tool through its paces. Written for both CVS users and
administrators, this book includes:
- A quickstart guide to help you get CVS installed, and
to quickly get you up to speed in the basic use of the
tool
- Chapters on advanced topics such as release tagging,
branching, and the various methods for connecting to remote
repositories
- Detailed documentation for CVS repository
administrators, discussing repository and project
management, showing ways to manage multiple CVS users, and
describing alternative CVS clients and administrative
tools
- A comprehensive reference to CVS commands,
configuration file syntax, CVSROOT files and variables,
environment variables used by CVS, and more
- A handy quick-reference card to facilitate your
day-to-day use of CVS
CVS is open source software and a wonderful example of
the power that the open source community places at your
doorstep. Let Essential CVS be your guide to using and
applying this power in your own projects.
Contents
- Introduction
- Using CVS
- CVS administration
- Reference
- Appendixes
- Index