Mercurial > hgbook
annotate en/ch01-intro.xml @ 831:acf9dc5f088d
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author | Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com> |
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date | Thu, 07 May 2009 21:07:35 -0700 |
parents | en/ch00-preface.xml@b338f5490029 |
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rev | line source |
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1 <!-- vim: set filetype=docbkxml shiftwidth=2 autoindent expandtab tw=77 : --> |
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2 |
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3 <chapter id="chap:intro"> |
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4 <?dbhtml filename="how-did-we-get-here.html"?> |
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5 <title>How did we get here?</title> |
26 | 6 |
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7 <sect1> |
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8 <title>Why revision control? Why Mercurial?</title> |
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9 |
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10 <para id="x_6d">Revision control is the process of managing multiple |
682
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11 versions of a piece of information. In its simplest form, this |
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12 is something that many people do by hand: every time you modify |
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13 a file, save it under a new name that contains a number, each |
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14 one higher than the number of the preceding version.</para> |
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15 |
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16 <para id="x_6e">Manually managing multiple versions of even a single file is |
682
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17 an error-prone task, though, so software tools to help automate |
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18 this process have long been available. The earliest automated |
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19 revision control tools were intended to help a single user to |
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20 manage revisions of a single file. Over the past few decades, |
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21 the scope of revision control tools has expanded greatly; they |
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22 now manage multiple files, and help multiple people to work |
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23 together. The best modern revision control tools have no |
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24 problem coping with thousands of people working together on |
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25 projects that consist of hundreds of thousands of files.</para> |
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26 |
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27 <para id="x_6f">The arrival of distributed revision control is relatively |
682
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28 recent, and so far this new field has grown due to people's |
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29 willingness to explore ill-charted territory.</para> |
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30 |
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31 <para id="x_70">I am writing a book about distributed revision control |
682
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32 because I believe that it is an important subject that deserves |
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33 a field guide. I chose to write about Mercurial because it is |
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34 the easiest tool to learn the terrain with, and yet it scales to |
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35 the demands of real, challenging environments where many other |
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36 revision control tools buckle.</para> |
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37 |
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38 <sect2> |
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39 <title>Why use revision control?</title> |
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40 |
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41 <para id="x_71">There are a number of reasons why you or your team might |
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42 want to use an automated revision control tool for a |
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43 project.</para> |
26 | 44 |
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45 <itemizedlist> |
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46 <listitem><para id="x_72">It will track the history and evolution of |
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47 your project, so you don't have to. For every change, |
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48 you'll have a log of <emphasis>who</emphasis> made it; |
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49 <emphasis>why</emphasis> they made it; |
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50 <emphasis>when</emphasis> they made it; and |
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51 <emphasis>what</emphasis> the change |
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52 was.</para></listitem> |
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53 <listitem><para id="x_73">When you're working with other people, |
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54 revision control software makes it easier for you to |
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55 collaborate. For example, when people more or less |
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56 simultaneously make potentially incompatible changes, the |
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57 software will help you to identify and resolve those |
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58 conflicts.</para></listitem> |
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59 <listitem><para id="x_74">It can help you to recover from mistakes. If |
682
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60 you make a change that later turns out to be in error, you |
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61 can revert to an earlier version of one or more files. In |
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62 fact, a <emphasis>really</emphasis> good revision control |
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63 tool will even help you to efficiently figure out exactly |
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64 when a problem was introduced (see <xref |
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65 linkend="sec:undo:bisect"/> for details).</para></listitem> |
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66 <listitem><para id="x_75">It will help you to work simultaneously on, |
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67 and manage the drift between, multiple versions of your |
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68 project.</para></listitem> |
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69 </itemizedlist> |
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70 |
714 | 71 <para id="x_76">Most of these reasons are equally |
72 valid&emdash;at least in theory&emdash;whether you're working | |
73 on a project by yourself, or with a hundred other | |
74 people.</para> | |
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75 |
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76 <para id="x_77">A key question about the practicality of revision control |
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77 at these two different scales (<quote>lone hacker</quote> and |
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78 <quote>huge team</quote>) is how its |
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79 <emphasis>benefits</emphasis> compare to its |
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80 <emphasis>costs</emphasis>. A revision control tool that's |
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81 difficult to understand or use is going to impose a high |
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82 cost.</para> |
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83 |
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84 <para id="x_78">A five-hundred-person project is likely to collapse under |
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85 its own weight almost immediately without a revision control |
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86 tool and process. In this case, the cost of using revision |
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87 control might hardly seem worth considering, since |
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88 <emphasis>without</emphasis> it, failure is almost |
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89 guaranteed.</para> |
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90 |
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91 <para id="x_79">On the other hand, a one-person <quote>quick hack</quote> |
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92 might seem like a poor place to use a revision control tool, |
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93 because surely the cost of using one must be close to the |
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94 overall cost of the project. Right?</para> |
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95 |
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96 <para id="x_7a">Mercurial uniquely supports <emphasis>both</emphasis> of |
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97 these scales of development. You can learn the basics in just |
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98 a few minutes, and due to its low overhead, you can apply |
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99 revision control to the smallest of projects with ease. Its |
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100 simplicity means you won't have a lot of abstruse concepts or |
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101 command sequences competing for mental space with whatever |
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102 you're <emphasis>really</emphasis> trying to do. At the same |
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103 time, Mercurial's high performance and peer-to-peer nature let |
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104 you scale painlessly to handle large projects.</para> |
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105 |
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106 <para id="x_7b">No revision control tool can rescue a poorly run project, |
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107 but a good choice of tools can make a huge difference to the |
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108 fluidity with which you can work on a project.</para> |
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109 |
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110 </sect2> |
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111 |
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112 <sect2> |
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113 <title>The many names of revision control</title> |
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114 |
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115 <para id="x_7c">Revision control is a diverse field, so much so that it is |
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116 referred to by many names and acronyms. Here are a few of the |
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117 more common variations you'll encounter:</para> |
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118 <itemizedlist> |
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119 <listitem><para id="x_7d">Revision control (RCS)</para></listitem> |
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120 <listitem><para id="x_7e">Software configuration management (SCM), or |
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121 configuration management</para></listitem> |
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122 <listitem><para id="x_7f">Source code management</para></listitem> |
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123 <listitem><para id="x_80">Source code control, or source |
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124 control</para></listitem> |
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125 <listitem><para id="x_81">Version control |
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126 (VCS)</para></listitem></itemizedlist> |
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127 <para id="x_82">Some people claim that these terms actually have different |
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128 meanings, but in practice they overlap so much that there's no |
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129 agreed or even useful way to tease them apart.</para> |
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130 |
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131 </sect2> |
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132 </sect1> |
26 | 133 |
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134 <sect1> |
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135 <title>About the examples in this book</title> |
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136 |
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137 <para id="x_84">This book takes an unusual approach to code samples. Every |
714 | 138 example is <quote>live</quote>&emdash;each one is actually the result |
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139 of a shell script that executes the Mercurial commands you see. |
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140 Every time an image of the book is built from its sources, all |
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141 the example scripts are automatically run, and their current |
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142 results compared against their expected results.</para> |
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143 |
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144 <para id="x_85">The advantage of this approach is that the examples are |
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145 always accurate; they describe <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> the |
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146 behavior of the version of Mercurial that's mentioned at the |
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147 front of the book. If I update the version of Mercurial that |
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148 I'm documenting, and the output of some command changes, the |
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149 build fails.</para> |
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150 |
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151 <para id="x_86">There is a small disadvantage to this approach, which is |
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152 that the dates and times you'll see in examples tend to be |
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153 <quote>squashed</quote> together in a way that they wouldn't be |
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154 if the same commands were being typed by a human. Where a human |
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155 can issue no more than one command every few seconds, with any |
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156 resulting timestamps correspondingly spread out, my automated |
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157 example scripts run many commands in one second.</para> |
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158 |
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159 <para id="x_87">As an instance of this, several consecutive commits in an |
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160 example can show up as having occurred during the same second. |
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161 You can see this occur in the <literal |
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162 role="hg-ext">bisect</literal> example in <xref |
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163 linkend="sec:undo:bisect"/>, for instance.</para> |
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164 |
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165 <para id="x_88">So when you're reading examples, don't place too much weight |
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166 on the dates or times you see in the output of commands. But |
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167 <emphasis>do</emphasis> be confident that the behavior you're |
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168 seeing is consistent and reproducible.</para> |
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169 |
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170 </sect1> |
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171 |
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172 <sect1> |
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173 <title>Trends in the field</title> |
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174 |
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175 <para id="x_89">There has been an unmistakable trend in the development and |
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176 use of revision control tools over the past four decades, as |
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177 people have become familiar with the capabilities of their tools |
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178 and constrained by their limitations.</para> |
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179 |
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180 <para id="x_8a">The first generation began by managing single files on |
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181 individual computers. Although these tools represented a huge |
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182 advance over ad-hoc manual revision control, their locking model |
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183 and reliance on a single computer limited them to small, |
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184 tightly-knit teams.</para> |
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185 |
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186 <para id="x_8b">The second generation loosened these constraints by moving |
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187 to network-centered architectures, and managing entire projects |
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188 at a time. As projects grew larger, they ran into new problems. |
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189 With clients needing to talk to servers very frequently, server |
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190 scaling became an issue for large projects. An unreliable |
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191 network connection could prevent remote users from being able to |
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192 talk to the server at all. As open source projects started |
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193 making read-only access available anonymously to anyone, people |
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194 without commit privileges found that they could not use the |
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195 tools to interact with a project in a natural way, as they could |
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196 not record their changes.</para> |
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197 |
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198 <para id="x_8c">The current generation of revision control tools is |
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199 peer-to-peer in nature. All of these systems have dropped the |
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200 dependency on a single central server, and allow people to |
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201 distribute their revision control data to where it's actually |
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202 needed. Collaboration over the Internet has moved from |
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203 constrained by technology to a matter of choice and consensus. |
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204 Modern tools can operate offline indefinitely and autonomously, |
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205 with a network connection only needed when syncing changes with |
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206 another repository.</para> |
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207 |
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208 </sect1> |
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209 <sect1> |
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210 <title>A few of the advantages of distributed revision |
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211 control</title> |
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212 |
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213 <para id="x_8d">Even though distributed revision control tools have for |
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214 several years been as robust and usable as their |
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215 previous-generation counterparts, people using older tools have |
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216 not yet necessarily woken up to their advantages. There are a |
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217 number of ways in which distributed tools shine relative to |
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218 centralised ones.</para> |
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219 |
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220 <para id="x_8e">For an individual developer, distributed tools are almost |
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221 always much faster than centralised tools. This is for a simple |
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222 reason: a centralised tool needs to talk over the network for |
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223 many common operations, because most metadata is stored in a |
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224 single copy on the central server. A distributed tool stores |
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225 all of its metadata locally. All else being equal, talking over |
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226 the network adds overhead to a centralised tool. Don't |
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227 underestimate the value of a snappy, responsive tool: you're |
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228 going to spend a lot of time interacting with your revision |
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229 control software.</para> |
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230 |
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231 <para id="x_8f">Distributed tools are indifferent to the vagaries of your |
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232 server infrastructure, again because they replicate metadata to |
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233 so many locations. If you use a centralised system and your |
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234 server catches fire, you'd better hope that your backup media |
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235 are reliable, and that your last backup was recent and actually |
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236 worked. With a distributed tool, you have many backups |
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237 available on every contributor's computer.</para> |
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238 |
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239 <para id="x_90">The reliability of your network will affect distributed |
682
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240 tools far less than it will centralised tools. You can't even |
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241 use a centralised tool without a network connection, except for |
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242 a few highly constrained commands. With a distributed tool, if |
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243 your network connection goes down while you're working, you may |
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244 not even notice. The only thing you won't be able to do is talk |
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245 to repositories on other computers, something that is relatively |
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246 rare compared with local operations. If you have a far-flung |
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247 team of collaborators, this may be significant.</para> |
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248 |
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249 <sect2> |
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250 <title>Advantages for open source projects</title> |
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251 |
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252 <para id="x_91">If you take a shine to an open source project and decide |
682
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253 that you would like to start hacking on it, and that project |
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254 uses a distributed revision control tool, you are at once a |
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255 peer with the people who consider themselves the |
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256 <quote>core</quote> of that project. If they publish their |
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257 repositories, you can immediately copy their project history, |
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258 start making changes, and record your work, using the same |
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259 tools in the same ways as insiders. By contrast, with a |
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260 centralised tool, you must use the software in a <quote>read |
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261 only</quote> mode unless someone grants you permission to |
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262 commit changes to their central server. Until then, you won't |
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263 be able to record changes, and your local modifications will |
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264 be at risk of corruption any time you try to update your |
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265 client's view of the repository.</para> |
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266 |
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267 <sect3> |
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268 <title>The forking non-problem</title> |
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269 |
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270 <para id="x_92">It has been suggested that distributed revision control |
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271 tools pose some sort of risk to open source projects because |
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272 they make it easy to <quote>fork</quote> the development of |
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273 a project. A fork happens when there are differences in |
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274 opinion or attitude between groups of developers that cause |
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275 them to decide that they can't work together any longer. |
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276 Each side takes a more or less complete copy of the |
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277 project's source code, and goes off in its own |
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278 direction.</para> |
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279 |
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280 <para id="x_93">Sometimes the camps in a fork decide to reconcile their |
682
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281 differences. With a centralised revision control system, the |
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282 <emphasis>technical</emphasis> process of reconciliation is |
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283 painful, and has to be performed largely by hand. You have |
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284 to decide whose revision history is going to |
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285 <quote>win</quote>, and graft the other team's changes into |
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286 the tree somehow. This usually loses some or all of one |
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287 side's revision history.</para> |
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288 |
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289 <para id="x_94">What distributed tools do with respect to forking is |
682
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290 they make forking the <emphasis>only</emphasis> way to |
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291 develop a project. Every single change that you make is |
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292 potentially a fork point. The great strength of this |
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293 approach is that a distributed revision control tool has to |
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294 be really good at <emphasis>merging</emphasis> forks, |
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295 because forks are absolutely fundamental: they happen all |
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296 the time.</para> |
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297 |
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298 <para id="x_95">If every piece of work that everybody does, all the |
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299 time, is framed in terms of forking and merging, then what |
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300 the open source world refers to as a <quote>fork</quote> |
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301 becomes <emphasis>purely</emphasis> a social issue. If |
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302 anything, distributed tools <emphasis>lower</emphasis> the |
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303 likelihood of a fork:</para> |
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304 <itemizedlist> |
683
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305 <listitem><para id="x_96">They eliminate the social distinction that |
682
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306 centralised tools impose: that between insiders (people |
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307 with commit access) and outsiders (people |
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308 without).</para></listitem> |
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309 <listitem><para id="x_97">They make it easier to reconcile after a |
682
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310 social fork, because all that's involved from the |
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311 perspective of the revision control software is just |
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312 another merge.</para></listitem></itemizedlist> |
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313 |
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314 <para id="x_98">Some people resist distributed tools because they want |
682
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315 to retain tight control over their projects, and they |
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316 believe that centralised tools give them this control. |
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317 However, if you're of this belief, and you publish your CVS |
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318 or Subversion repositories publicly, there are plenty of |
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319 tools available that can pull out your entire project's |
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320 history (albeit slowly) and recreate it somewhere that you |
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321 don't control. So while your control in this case is |
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322 illusory, you are forgoing the ability to fluidly |
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323 collaborate with whatever people feel compelled to mirror |
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324 and fork your history.</para> |
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325 |
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326 </sect3> |
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327 </sect2> |
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328 <sect2> |
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329 <title>Advantages for commercial projects</title> |
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330 |
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331 <para id="x_99">Many commercial projects are undertaken by teams that are |
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332 scattered across the globe. Contributors who are far from a |
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333 central server will see slower command execution and perhaps |
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334 less reliability. Commercial revision control systems attempt |
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335 to ameliorate these problems with remote-site replication |
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336 add-ons that are typically expensive to buy and cantankerous |
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337 to administer. A distributed system doesn't suffer from these |
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338 problems in the first place. Better yet, you can easily set |
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339 up multiple authoritative servers, say one per site, so that |
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340 there's no redundant communication between repositories over |
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341 expensive long-haul network links.</para> |
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342 |
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343 <para id="x_9a">Centralised revision control systems tend to have |
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344 relatively low scalability. It's not unusual for an expensive |
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345 centralised system to fall over under the combined load of |
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346 just a few dozen concurrent users. Once again, the typical |
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347 response tends to be an expensive and clunky replication |
714 | 348 facility. Since the load on a central server&emdash;if you have |
349 one at all&emdash;is many times lower with a distributed tool | |
682
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350 (because all of the data is replicated everywhere), a single |
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351 cheap server can handle the needs of a much larger team, and |
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352 replication to balance load becomes a simple matter of |
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353 scripting.</para> |
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354 |
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355 <para id="x_9b">If you have an employee in the field, troubleshooting a |
682
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356 problem at a customer's site, they'll benefit from distributed |
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357 revision control. The tool will let them generate custom |
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358 builds, try different fixes in isolation from each other, and |
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359 search efficiently through history for the sources of bugs and |
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360 regressions in the customer's environment, all without needing |
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361 to connect to your company's network.</para> |
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362 |
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363 </sect2> |
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364 </sect1> |
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365 <sect1> |
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366 <title>Why choose Mercurial?</title> |
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367 |
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368 <para id="x_9c">Mercurial has a unique set of properties that make it a |
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369 particularly good choice as a revision control system.</para> |
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370 <itemizedlist> |
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371 <listitem><para id="x_9d">It is easy to learn and use.</para></listitem> |
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372 <listitem><para id="x_9e">It is lightweight.</para></listitem> |
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373 <listitem><para id="x_9f">It scales excellently.</para></listitem> |
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374 <listitem><para id="x_a0">It is easy to |
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375 customise.</para></listitem></itemizedlist> |
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376 |
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377 <para id="x_a1">If you are at all familiar with revision control systems, |
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378 you should be able to get up and running with Mercurial in less |
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379 than five minutes. Even if not, it will take no more than a few |
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380 minutes longer. Mercurial's command and feature sets are |
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381 generally uniform and consistent, so you can keep track of a few |
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382 general rules instead of a host of exceptions.</para> |
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383 |
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384 <para id="x_a2">On a small project, you can start working with Mercurial in |
682
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385 moments. Creating new changes and branches; transferring changes |
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386 around (whether locally or over a network); and history and |
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387 status operations are all fast. Mercurial attempts to stay |
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388 nimble and largely out of your way by combining low cognitive |
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389 overhead with blazingly fast operations.</para> |
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390 |
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391 <para id="x_a3">The usefulness of Mercurial is not limited to small |
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392 projects: it is used by projects with hundreds to thousands of |
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393 contributors, each containing tens of thousands of files and |
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394 hundreds of megabytes of source code.</para> |
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395 |
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396 <para id="x_a4">If the core functionality of Mercurial is not enough for |
682
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397 you, it's easy to build on. Mercurial is well suited to |
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398 scripting tasks, and its clean internals and implementation in |
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399 Python make it easy to add features in the form of extensions. |
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400 There are a number of popular and useful extensions already |
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401 available, ranging from helping to identify bugs to improving |
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402 performance.</para> |
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403 |
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404 </sect1> |
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405 <sect1> |
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406 <title>Mercurial compared with other tools</title> |
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407 |
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408 <para id="x_a5">Before you read on, please understand that this section |
682
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409 necessarily reflects my own experiences, interests, and (dare I |
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410 say it) biases. I have used every one of the revision control |
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411 tools listed below, in most cases for several years at a |
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412 time.</para> |
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413 |
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414 |
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415 <sect2> |
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416 <title>Subversion</title> |
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417 |
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418 <para id="x_a6">Subversion is a popular revision control tool, developed |
682
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419 to replace CVS. It has a centralised client/server |
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420 architecture.</para> |
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421 |
683
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422 <para id="x_a7">Subversion and Mercurial have similarly named commands for |
682
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423 performing the same operations, so if you're familiar with |
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424 one, it is easy to learn to use the other. Both tools are |
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425 portable to all popular operating systems.</para> |
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426 |
683
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427 <para id="x_a8">Prior to version 1.5, Subversion had no useful support for |
682
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428 merges. At the time of writing, its merge tracking capability |
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429 is new, and known to be <ulink |
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430 url="http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.branchmerge.advanced.html#svn.branchmerge.advanced.finalword">complicated |
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431 and buggy</ulink>.</para> |
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432 |
683
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433 <para id="x_a9">Mercurial has a substantial performance advantage over |
682
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434 Subversion on every revision control operation I have |
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435 benchmarked. I have measured its advantage as ranging from a |
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436 factor of two to a factor of six when compared with Subversion |
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437 1.4.3's <emphasis>ra_local</emphasis> file store, which is the |
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438 fastest access method available. In more realistic |
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439 deployments involving a network-based store, Subversion will |
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440 be at a substantially larger disadvantage. Because many |
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441 Subversion commands must talk to the server and Subversion |
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442 does not have useful replication facilities, server capacity |
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443 and network bandwidth become bottlenecks for modestly large |
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444 projects.</para> |
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445 |
683
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446 <para id="x_aa">Additionally, Subversion incurs substantial storage |
682
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447 overhead to avoid network transactions for a few common |
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448 operations, such as finding modified files |
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449 (<literal>status</literal>) and displaying modifications |
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450 against the current revision (<literal>diff</literal>). As a |
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451 result, a Subversion working copy is often the same size as, |
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452 or larger than, a Mercurial repository and working directory, |
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453 even though the Mercurial repository contains a complete |
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454 history of the project.</para> |
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455 |
683
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456 <para id="x_ab">Subversion is widely supported by third party tools. |
682
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457 Mercurial currently lags considerably in this area. This gap |
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458 is closing, however, and indeed some of Mercurial's GUI tools |
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459 now outshine their Subversion equivalents. Like Mercurial, |
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460 Subversion has an excellent user manual.</para> |
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461 |
683
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462 <para id="x_ac">Because Subversion doesn't store revision history on the |
682
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463 client, it is well suited to managing projects that deal with |
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464 lots of large, opaque binary files. If you check in fifty |
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465 revisions to an incompressible 10MB file, Subversion's |
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466 client-side space usage stays constant The space used by any |
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467 distributed SCM will grow rapidly in proportion to the number |
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468 of revisions, because the differences between each revision |
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469 are large.</para> |
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470 |
683
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471 <para id="x_ad">In addition, it's often difficult or, more usually, |
682
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472 impossible to merge different versions of a binary file. |
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473 Subversion's ability to let a user lock a file, so that they |
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474 temporarily have the exclusive right to commit changes to it, |
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475 can be a significant advantage to a project where binary files |
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476 are widely used.</para> |
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477 |
683
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478 <para id="x_ae">Mercurial can import revision history from a Subversion |
682
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479 repository. It can also export revision history to a |
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480 Subversion repository. This makes it easy to <quote>test the |
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481 waters</quote> and use Mercurial and Subversion in parallel |
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482 before deciding to switch. History conversion is incremental, |
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483 so you can perform an initial conversion, then small |
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484 additional conversions afterwards to bring in new |
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485 changes.</para> |
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486 |
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487 |
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488 </sect2> |
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489 <sect2> |
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490 <title>Git</title> |
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491 |
683
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492 <para id="x_af">Git is a distributed revision control tool that was |
682
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493 developed for managing the Linux kernel source tree. Like |
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494 Mercurial, its early design was somewhat influenced by |
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495 Monotone.</para> |
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496 |
683
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497 <para id="x_b0">Git has a very large command set, with version 1.5.0 |
682
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498 providing 139 individual commands. It has something of a |
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499 reputation for being difficult to learn. Compared to Git, |
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500 Mercurial has a strong focus on simplicity.</para> |
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501 |
683
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502 <para id="x_b1">In terms of performance, Git is extremely fast. In |
682
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503 several cases, it is faster than Mercurial, at least on Linux, |
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504 while Mercurial performs better on other operations. However, |
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505 on Windows, the performance and general level of support that |
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506 Git provides is, at the time of writing, far behind that of |
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507 Mercurial.</para> |
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508 |
683
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509 <para id="x_b2">While a Mercurial repository needs no maintenance, a Git |
682
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510 repository requires frequent manual <quote>repacks</quote> of |
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511 its metadata. Without these, performance degrades, while |
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512 space usage grows rapidly. A server that contains many Git |
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513 repositories that are not rigorously and frequently repacked |
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514 will become heavily disk-bound during backups, and there have |
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parents:
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515 been instances of daily backups taking far longer than 24 |
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516 hours as a result. A freshly packed Git repository is |
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517 slightly smaller than a Mercurial repository, but an unpacked |
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518 repository is several orders of magnitude larger.</para> |
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|
519 |
683
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520 <para id="x_b3">The core of Git is written in C. Many Git commands are |
682
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521 implemented as shell or Perl scripts, and the quality of these |
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522 scripts varies widely. I have encountered several instances |
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523 where scripts charged along blindly in the presence of errors |
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524 that should have been fatal.</para> |
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parents:
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diff
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|
525 |
683
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|
526 <para id="x_b4">Mercurial can import revision history from a Git |
682
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parents:
680
diff
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|
527 repository.</para> |
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parents:
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|
528 |
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diff
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|
529 |
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diff
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|
530 </sect2> |
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diff
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|
531 <sect2> |
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532 <title>CVS</title> |
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diff
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|
533 |
683
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534 <para id="x_b5">CVS is probably the most widely used revision control tool |
682
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|
535 in the world. Due to its age and internal untidiness, it has |
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parents:
680
diff
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536 been only lightly maintained for many years.</para> |
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parents:
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|
537 |
683
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parents:
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|
538 <para id="x_b6">It has a centralised client/server architecture. It does |
682
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parents:
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539 not group related file changes into atomic commits, making it |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
540 easy for people to <quote>break the build</quote>: one person |
28b5a5befb08
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parents:
680
diff
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|
541 can successfully commit part of a change and then be blocked |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
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542 by the need for a merge, causing other people to see only a |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
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diff
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|
543 portion of the work they intended to do. This also affects |
28b5a5befb08
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parents:
680
diff
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|
544 how you work with project history. If you want to see all of |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
545 the modifications someone made as part of a task, you will |
28b5a5befb08
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parents:
680
diff
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|
546 need to manually inspect the descriptions and timestamps of |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
547 the changes made to each file involved (if you even know what |
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diff
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|
548 those files were).</para> |
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parents:
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diff
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|
549 |
683
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parents:
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diff
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|
550 <para id="x_b7">CVS has a muddled notion of tags and branches that I will |
682
28b5a5befb08
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parents:
680
diff
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|
551 not attempt to even describe. It does not support renaming of |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
552 files or directories well, making it easy to corrupt a |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
553 repository. It has almost no internal consistency checking |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
554 capabilities, so it is usually not even possible to tell |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
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diff
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|
555 whether or how a repository is corrupt. I would not recommend |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
556 CVS for any project, existing or new.</para> |
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parents:
680
diff
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|
557 |
683
c838b3975bc6
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
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diff
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|
558 <para id="x_b8">Mercurial can import CVS revision history. However, there |
682
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680
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|
559 are a few caveats that apply; these are true of every other |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
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diff
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|
560 revision control tool's CVS importer, too. Due to CVS's lack |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
561 of atomic changes and unversioned filesystem hierarchy, it is |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
562 not possible to reconstruct CVS history completely accurately; |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
563 some guesswork is involved, and renames will usually not show |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
564 up. Because a lot of advanced CVS administration has to be |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
565 done by hand and is hence error-prone, it's common for CVS |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
566 importers to run into multiple problems with corrupted |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
567 repositories (completely bogus revision timestamps and files |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
568 that have remained locked for over a decade are just two of |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
569 the less interesting problems I can recall from personal |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
570 experience).</para> |
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parents:
680
diff
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|
571 |
683
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
682
diff
changeset
|
572 <para id="x_b9">Mercurial can import revision history from a CVS |
682
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
573 repository.</para> |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
changeset
|
574 |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
changeset
|
575 |
28b5a5befb08
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parents:
680
diff
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|
576 </sect2> |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
changeset
|
577 <sect2> |
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parents:
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diff
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|
578 <title>Commercial tools</title> |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
579 |
683
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
682
diff
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|
580 <para id="x_ba">Perforce has a centralised client/server architecture, |
682
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
changeset
|
581 with no client-side caching of any data. Unlike modern |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
changeset
|
582 revision control tools, Perforce requires that a user run a |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
583 command to inform the server about every file they intend to |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
changeset
|
584 edit.</para> |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
changeset
|
585 |
683
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
682
diff
changeset
|
586 <para id="x_bb">The performance of Perforce is quite good for small teams, |
682
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parents:
680
diff
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|
587 but it falls off rapidly as the number of users grows beyond a |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
588 few dozen. Modestly large Perforce installations require the |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
changeset
|
589 deployment of proxies to cope with the load their users |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
590 generate.</para> |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
changeset
|
591 |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
592 |
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593 </sect2> |
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680
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594 <sect2> |
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595 <title>Choosing a revision control tool</title> |
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596 |
683
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597 <para id="x_bc">With the exception of CVS, all of the tools listed above |
682
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parents:
680
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598 have unique strengths that suit them to particular styles of |
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parents:
680
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599 work. There is no single revision control tool that is best |
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600 in all situations.</para> |
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parents:
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|
601 |
683
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602 <para id="x_bd">As an example, Subversion is a good choice for working |
682
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parents:
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603 with frequently edited binary files, due to its centralised |
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parents:
680
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604 nature and support for file locking.</para> |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
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|
605 |
683
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606 <para id="x_be">I personally find Mercurial's properties of simplicity, |
682
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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607 performance, and good merge support to be a compelling |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
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diff
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608 combination that has served me well for several years.</para> |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
609 |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
610 |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
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|
611 </sect2> |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
612 </sect1> |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
613 <sect1> |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
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|
614 <title>Switching from another tool to Mercurial</title> |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
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615 |
683
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616 <para id="x_bf">Mercurial is bundled with an extension named <literal |
682
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parents:
680
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617 role="hg-ext">convert</literal>, which can incrementally |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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618 import revision history from several other revision control |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
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619 tools. By <quote>incremental</quote>, I mean that you can |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
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620 convert all of a project's history to date in one go, then rerun |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
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621 the conversion later to obtain new changes that happened after |
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parents:
680
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622 the initial conversion.</para> |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
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|
623 |
683
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parents:
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624 <para id="x_c0">The revision control tools supported by <literal |
682
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
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625 role="hg-ext">convert</literal> are as follows:</para> |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
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626 <itemizedlist> |
683
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parents:
682
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627 <listitem><para id="x_c1">Subversion</para></listitem> |
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parents:
682
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|
628 <listitem><para id="x_c2">CVS</para></listitem> |
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parents:
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|
629 <listitem><para id="x_c3">Git</para></listitem> |
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630 <listitem><para id="x_c4">Darcs</para></listitem></itemizedlist> |
682
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parents:
680
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631 |
683
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632 <para id="x_c5">In addition, <literal role="hg-ext">convert</literal> can |
682
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parents:
680
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633 export changes from Mercurial to Subversion. This makes it |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
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634 possible to try Subversion and Mercurial in parallel before |
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parents:
680
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635 committing to a switchover, without risking the loss of any |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
636 work.</para> |
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parents:
680
diff
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|
637 |
683
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
682
diff
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|
638 <para id="x_c6">The <command role="hg-ext-convert">convert</command> command |
682
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
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639 is easy to use. Simply point it at the path or URL of the |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
640 source repository, optionally give it the name of the |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
641 destination repository, and it will start working. After the |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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642 initial conversion, just run the same command again to import |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
643 new changes.</para> |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
644 </sect1> |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
645 |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
646 <sect1> |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
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647 <title>A short history of revision control</title> |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
648 |
683
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parents:
682
diff
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649 <para id="x_c7">The best known of the old-time revision control tools is |
682
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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650 SCCS (Source Code Control System), which Marc Rochkind wrote at |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
651 Bell Labs, in the early 1970s. SCCS operated on individual |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
652 files, and required every person working on a project to have |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
653 access to a shared workspace on a single system. Only one |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
654 person could modify a file at any time; arbitration for access |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
655 to files was via locks. It was common for people to lock files, |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
656 and later forget to unlock them, preventing anyone else from |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
657 modifying those files without the help of an |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
658 administrator.</para> |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
659 |
683
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parents:
682
diff
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|
660 <para id="x_c8">Walter Tichy developed a free alternative to SCCS in the |
682
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
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661 early 1980s; he called his program RCS (Revision Control System). |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
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|
662 Like SCCS, RCS required developers to work in a single shared |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
663 workspace, and to lock files to prevent multiple people from |
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parents:
680
diff
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|
664 modifying them simultaneously.</para> |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
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|
665 |
683
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parents:
682
diff
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666 <para id="x_c9">Later in the 1980s, Dick Grune used RCS as a building block |
682
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
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667 for a set of shell scripts he initially called cmt, but then |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
668 renamed to CVS (Concurrent Versions System). The big innovation |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
669 of CVS was that it let developers work simultaneously and |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
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670 somewhat independently in their own personal workspaces. The |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
671 personal workspaces prevented developers from stepping on each |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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672 other's toes all the time, as was common with SCCS and RCS. Each |
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parents:
680
diff
changeset
|
673 developer had a copy of every project file, and could modify |
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parents:
680
diff
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|
674 their copies independently. They had to merge their edits prior |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
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675 to committing changes to the central repository.</para> |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
changeset
|
676 |
683
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
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677 <para id="x_ca">Brian Berliner took Grune's original scripts and rewrote |
682
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
678 them in C, releasing in 1989 the code that has since developed |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
changeset
|
679 into the modern version of CVS. CVS subsequently acquired the |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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680 ability to operate over a network connection, giving it a |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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681 client/server architecture. CVS's architecture is centralised; |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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682 only the server has a copy of the history of the project. Client |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
changeset
|
683 workspaces just contain copies of recent versions of the |
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parents:
680
diff
changeset
|
684 project's files, and a little metadata to tell them where the |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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685 server is. CVS has been enormously successful; it is probably |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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686 the world's most widely used revision control system.</para> |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
changeset
|
687 |
683
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
682
diff
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688 <para id="x_cb">In the early 1990s, Sun Microsystems developed an early |
682
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
changeset
|
689 distributed revision control system, called TeamWare. A |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
690 TeamWare workspace contains a complete copy of the project's |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
691 history. TeamWare has no notion of a central repository. (CVS |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
692 relied upon RCS for its history storage; TeamWare used |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
693 SCCS.)</para> |
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parents:
680
diff
changeset
|
694 |
683
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
682
diff
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|
695 <para id="x_cc">As the 1990s progressed, awareness grew of a number of |
682
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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696 problems with CVS. It records simultaneous changes to multiple |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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697 files individually, instead of grouping them together as a |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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698 single logically atomic operation. It does not manage its file |
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parents:
680
diff
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699 hierarchy well; it is easy to make a mess of a repository by |
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parents:
680
diff
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|
700 renaming files and directories. Worse, its source code is |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
701 difficult to read and maintain, which made the <quote>pain |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
702 level</quote> of fixing these architectural problems |
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parents:
680
diff
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|
703 prohibitive.</para> |
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parents:
680
diff
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|
704 |
683
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parents:
682
diff
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|
705 <para id="x_cd">In 2001, Jim Blandy and Karl Fogel, two developers who had |
682
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
706 worked on CVS, started a project to replace it with a tool that |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
707 would have a better architecture and cleaner code. The result, |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
708 Subversion, does not stray from CVS's centralised client/server |
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
709 model, but it adds multi-file atomic commits, better namespace |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
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|
710 management, and a number of other features that make it a |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
711 generally better tool than CVS. Since its initial release, it |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
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|
712 has rapidly grown in popularity.</para> |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
713 |
683
c838b3975bc6
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
682
diff
changeset
|
714 <para id="x_ce">More or less simultaneously, Graydon Hoare began working on |
682
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
715 an ambitious distributed revision control system that he named |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
716 Monotone. While Monotone addresses many of CVS's design flaws |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
changeset
|
717 and has a peer-to-peer architecture, it goes beyond earlier (and |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
changeset
|
718 subsequent) revision control tools in a number of innovative |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
changeset
|
719 ways. It uses cryptographic hashes as identifiers, and has an |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
changeset
|
720 integral notion of <quote>trust</quote> for code from different |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
changeset
|
721 sources.</para> |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
722 |
683
c838b3975bc6
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
682
diff
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|
723 <para id="x_cf">Mercurial began life in 2005. While a few aspects of its |
682
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
changeset
|
724 design are influenced by Monotone, Mercurial focuses on ease of |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
changeset
|
725 use, high performance, and scalability to very large |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
726 projects.</para> |
28b5a5befb08
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
680
diff
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|
727 </sect1> |
831
acf9dc5f088d
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Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
771
diff
changeset
|
728 </chapter> |
26 | 729 |
658
b90b024729f1
WIP DocBook snapshot that all compiles. Mirabile dictu!
Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
649
diff
changeset
|
730 <!-- |
b90b024729f1
WIP DocBook snapshot that all compiles. Mirabile dictu!
Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
649
diff
changeset
|
731 local variables: |
831
acf9dc5f088d
Add a skeletal preface.
Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
771
diff
changeset
|
732 sgml-parent-document: ("00book.xml" "book" "chapter") |
658
b90b024729f1
WIP DocBook snapshot that all compiles. Mirabile dictu!
Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
649
diff
changeset
|
733 end: |
b90b024729f1
WIP DocBook snapshot that all compiles. Mirabile dictu!
Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com>
parents:
649
diff
changeset
|
734 --> |