Книга: Embedded Linux development using Eclipse

8.2 CVS

Back in the early days of embedded computing, a lone engineer would design the hardware and write the software, sometimes in assembly language. I did my share of that back in the day. In that kind of environment, keeping track of changes was no big deal. The entire program may have consisted of perhaps a dozen or so files, and it’s easy enough to wrap your mind around a project of that magnitude.

Needless to say, things have changed. Projects are not uncommon that contain hundreds, if not thousands of files being worked on by teams of developers who may be distributed all over the world. Now, keeping track of changes is a big deal. In fact, disciplined management of revisions is absolutely critical in maintaining control of the software development process. I even regret not having used version control on projects where I was the only developer.

CVS (Concurrent Versioning System) is an Open Source software package that supports simultaneous development of files by multiple developers. It is commonly used in large programming projects, but its use is not limited to software development. It can be useful in any task that involves managing files of data on a computer system.

CVS uses a client/server paradigm to store a set of files on a server and then make those files accessible to all users who need them. The system provides commands to “check out” a copy of a file for modification and subsequently “commit” changes back to the repository. It also scans files as they are moved to and from the repository, to prevent one person’s changes from overwriting another’s.

The system also maintains a history of each file, which allows you to go back and recreate any previous version.

Оглавление книги