Version Control Overview
In its most basic form, version control is a place to maintain source code files. There is a server component, where the files are stored, and a client component that retrieves and places files into a server. The key benefits and differences over a simple file server include:
- Work share: In some form, the versioning software should have tools to let team members know who is working on what. Often, this is a locking mechanism that gives one user ‘exclusive’ rights to a file, but tells other people on the team, ‘Hey, Joe is working on that file’.
- Historical preservation: Control versioning software must store a file’s history of changes and should be able to restore any prior version if necessary. Even if you are a lone web developer not in a team, this feature alone makes versioning systems worth using. If you need to research the exact state of a source file six months ago, this software can retrieve that file for you.
- Backup: By...