Version Control System for LCGT
This page contains information for using version control system, subversion, for various LCGT tasks.
Contents
Introduction, why version control system ?
Version control system (VCS) is a computer tool to manage the history of various files you work on. Usually, files are documents or program codes, but you can use it for managing virtually any type of files. It keeps track of the changes you make to the files and let you roll back to any previous version if you want. The VCS is particularly useful when several people are working on a single set of files, for example, a group of people writing a paper, or several people developing a simulation code together.
It is probably easier to illustrate a sample use case with an example. Suppose two people, A and B are working on an interferometer simulation program. The simulation program has three files, file1, file2 and file3. Initially, exact copies of those files are installed to the computers of A and B.
Now, A started to edit file1 to implement a new function. About the same time, B started to edit file2 to add his own changes to it. If they continue to work like this for a while, they will eventually have two very different sets of files. There may be some inconsistent changes made by them to their own version of the program. After a while, it will become very difficult to merge their works back to a single program.
LCGT SVN quick start
See here.