Version Control 🡆 VC is used to manage changes to information. This information comes in the form of documents, computer programs, software sources, large web sites, and others. Changes are usually identified by a number (e.g. 1.0, 1.1, …) or letter code (A, B, …) called a “revision number” or simply “revision”. The terms “version control”, “revision control”, “revision control system” (RCS), “version control system” 🡆 VCS, or “source control” are synonymous. This document and subsequent documents refer to this general concept. However, there is a specific implementation of the same name 🡆 GNU-RCS which is not covered here.
Recently, a special kind of 🡆 VCS/RCS has emerged: Distributed Version Control Systems (🡆 DVCS) or Distributed Revision Control Systems (DRCS). While 🡆 Arch, 🡆 Monotone, and 🡆 Darcs have been around for some time, 🡆 Git or 🡆 Mercurial recently made 🡆 DVCS/DRCS popular.
In the following documents, the term Version Control System (VCS) is used for all of these terms. Information about the following 🡆 VCS can be found:
| Version | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 0.1.3 | 2023-03-29 | Improve writing |
| 0.1.2 | 2022-07-15 | Improve ‘version control’ description, +dispatch |
| 0.1.1 | 2022-05-29 | Fix front matter YAML, +history |
| 0.1.0 | 2021-05-20 | Initial release |