Why use Version Control Software?

By Jon “The Nice Guy” SpriggsFirst given at BarCamp Blackpool 2011

How do you currently manage your software and documents?

Create Doc1-2011-10-14.1st-no-really.best.doc

Create a directory per version and put all your files in there

Save a local copy and update that version – who cares about conflicts

Email the versions to everyone and wait for them to comment

Have all your team save to the same server – who cares about conflicts?

What could go wrong???

If two people are working on the same document, the person who saves last writes the only version of the file

How do you know what the latest version is?

How does it feel to look at a directory full of files if it's the first time you've come to it?

What happens if the latest version contains a mistake?

Where does Version Control come in to this?

Version control gives you a way to let multiple people work on the same files, without or with less conflicts

Version control can let you see who made changes to the files

Version control can let you see the history of your files – and even replace swap the current file with an older version.

What can you use?

VCS technologies

RCS

CVS

Subversion

Git

Mercurial

Bazaar

SVK

What do I use

Windows

Tortoise SVN + WinMerge + XdocDiff Plugin

Tortoise Git

Linux

Eclipse + eGit

Git

Subversion

In a push...

Subversion + WebDav