Chapter 8. Know What You Have: CVS

Source control is such a necessary part of good development practice that it ranks right up there with a sound compiler as a critical part of any software project. It may seem like only an administrative overhead to newcomers, but its effect on a project of any size will be felt over time; it's not the first version of a project that needs source control so much as versions 2 and beyond. And it can be a life saver.

One of the Linux tools that is most appreciated on projects around the globe is the Concurrent Versioning System, CVS. ^[1] It is one of the best, most reliable pieces of software that these authors have ever used. It should be part of your repertoire of software skills, even when you're not running on Linux. But enough praise; back to practicalities.

^[1] As we were writing this chapter, the core developers of CVS released version 1.0 of a new version control system called Subversion. This new system supposedly contains many improvements over CVS. We do not doubt this, and we recommend that you take a look at Subversion before you select a version control tool. Meanwhile, we know CVS, and most Open Source projects are currently managed with CVS. Choosing CVS won't be a bad choice.