When will CVS be replaced by modern version control system?

Jonathan S. Shapiro shap at eros-os.com
Thu Nov 8 14:31:09 UTC 2007


I have to say that since we switched to mercurial we haven't looked
back. We are finding advantages to distributed VCS even though our
workflow model is basically centralized.

For purposes of centralized workflow, the main change is that
centralized processing is triggered by "push" rather than by "commit".
With this exception, the workflow is basically unchanged relative to
other centralized workflows.

What hg is buying us is the following:

  1. I can set up a temporary local workspace, make and retract local
     commits, figure out what the heck I was doing, and easily generate
     a consolidated commit at the end.

     This is VERY helpful when I am multitasking (one problem, one
     workspace). It is also very helpful when I am moving work back
     and forth between office and home and don't want to commit
     centrally yet.

  2. We can pull changesets laterally to accept patches or to
     collaborate with outsiders for review, and then have the
     reviewer push them forward into the central repo.

  3. The ability to work on airplanes or in remote locations and
     recover when we screw up.

So far, we aren't making a lot of use of patch queues, mainly because we
haven't had time to learn about that much.

I'm not pushing for any change. I'm just trying to answer the workflow
question.
-- 
Jonathan S. Shapiro, Ph.D.
Managing Director
The EROS Group, LLC
www.coyotos.org, www.eros-os.org




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