version control software

For many years he standard version control software in Linux has been cvs (and the related rcs). CVS is a bit clutsy to work with and has had to have convoluted design features because of its use of RCS at the individual file level. Overall, it works pretty well, but has some limitations with moving files and directories, etc.

Subversion is the new version control system that is being pushed by lots of linux people. It does not use rcs and thus does not have the constraints that cvs has had to deal with. It uses much of the same command syntax and the learning curve of going from cvs to subversion is not bad. Also there is a free book available (O'reilly also sells a printed version) that is a very complete writeup on how subversion works and how to use it. Subversion is clearly better than cvs, but cvs may well be 'good enough' and has a huge install base.

It will be interesting to see if subversion can actually replace cvs since cvs has no major flaw. Subversion is a cleaner implementation and has some nice new features and is endorsed by the linux gurus. On the other hand cvs has a large install base, is good enough.