Version Control

Justification

1. VC is an important skill for developers and a prerequisite for developing quality software
2. DVCS will provide a useful platform for students to work together on projects

Outcomes

1. Able to describe the benefits of using version control
2. Can use Git for version control of new and existing projects, including working in a group
   1. Create a local repo
   2. Commit a change
   3. Create a branch
   4. Show the history
   5. SHow change differences
   6. Perform a local merge
   7. Push and pull changes to a remote repo

Introduction

• What is it

Version Control (VC) is a common practice used to track all the changes that occur to the files in a project over time. It needs a Version Control System (VCS) tool to work

• Why use it

  There are three types questions a VCS helps answer

  1. What changes were made in the past, why were they made and who made them (commit history and commit comments)
  2. How can undo a change I've made in error and "roll back" to start again
  3. How can I share my changes with the rest of the project team

• Tools available
  • Distributed vs. Centralised

    Modern VCS work on a distributed model (DVCS). This means that every member of the project team keeps a complete local copy of all the changes. The previous model, still widely used with tools like Subversion, is centralised. There is only one central database with all the changes and team members only have a copy of the change they are currently working on.

  • Open Source and Commercial Tools
  • What the tools do
    • Commit history
    • Diff listing
    • Integrate with other tools (e.g. Ticket Systems, built Systems, project management etc)

An example using git

• Setup up
• Creating a repo
• Committing a file
• Making a change
• Showing the diff
• Committing the change
• Showing the history
• Branches

Working with other

• Remote repos
• Merging
• Patches