Why you should be using a distributed version control system

Why you should be using a distributed version control system (DVCS) for your project Lenz Grimmer <lenz@grimmer.com> < http://lenzg.net/ | Twitter: @lenzgr 2009-12-03 SAPO Codebits | Lisbon | Portugal

Agenda ● Disadvantages of the central approach ● DVCS Concepts and Advantages ● Overview: Bazaar, git, Mercurial

$ whoami 1998 2002 2008 2010?

Disadvantages of the centralized approach (e.g. Subversion and CVS)

Most operations require communication with the central repository

Checkpointing your work requires committing to the central repository

Branching and merging considered painful

Collaboration is hampered

DVCS: Concepts and Advantages

There is no central instance (Well, duh!)

Disconnected operations

Local commits

Easy branching and merging

Multi-protocol support

Sample workflows

Solo Workflow ● Create project ● Commit changes Hack ● Review/browse history ● Tag/publish release ● Apply new changes ● Rinse & Repeat

Pair programming Create repository HackCommit Hack Commit Branch Push, pull, merge Pull and merge Developer A Developer B

Code deployment Commit Upstream Live site project Hack Merge Branch Push Developer

Central Branch & Gatekeeper Developer A Developer B Branch, Merge, Edit, Commit, Pull Push Edit, Commit, Push Merge, Review Push Central repository Gatekeeper

Overview: Bazaar, git, Mercurial

Comparison aspects ● Usability differences ● Project hosting sites ● OS support rd ● 3 party tools (e.g. IDE integration, GUIs) ● Plugins/Extensibility ● Speed ● Reference projects ● Handling of branches and merges

Bazaar ● Python ● Sponsored by Canonical ● Hosting Platforms: Launchpad | Sourceforge ● Many plugins ● One branch per directory – simplifies the UI ● IDE/GUI support ● Strong OS support (incl. Windows) ● References: Debian apt, awn, Gnash, MySQL, Ubuntu

git ● C | Perl | Shell ● Originated from the Linux Kernel Community ● Speed first, usability later ● Powerful, but steeper learning curve ● Multiple branches per directory ● Platforms: Kenai, github, gitorious, SourceForge ● References: Linux Kernel, Ruby on Rails, jQuery

Mercurial ● Python ● Plugins ● Platforms: Bitbucket, Google Code, Kenai ● Multiple branches per directory (named branches) ● A „pull“ updates the repo, not the working copy ● References: NetBeans, OpenJDK, OpenOffice, OpenSolaris, Python

Q&A Questions, Comments?

Thank you! Lenz Grimmer <lenz@grimmer.com>

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Why you should be using a distributed version control system

by Lenz Grimmer on Dec 07, 2009

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Why you should be using a distributed version control system — Presentation Transcript