WAY TO DEVOPS

version control

What is version control?
Version control refers to the process of tracking and managing changes to
digital assets over time. There are many ways to implement version control,
including simply adhering to a file naming and organizational process.
However, the discussion of version control typically refers to version control
software/version control systems. These are tools that are designed to help
teams work in parallel and prevent loss of important work.
Version control software is essential for development teams across all
industries. It not only enables them to manage changes to code and files over
time, but also allows them to work on the same project simultaneously. A good
version control system allows for better collaboration and faster development,
and it gives you a complete history of your digital assets.


Version Control System:

A version control system (VCS) or version control software automates the
process of version control. It tracks changes to a file or set of files over time so
that you do not have to manage file versions manually or with custom
automation scripts. A version control system keeps a complete history of your
code and other files, allowing you to return to a previous version if needed.

A version control system (VCS) is a software tool that tracks and manages
changes to computer files, especially source code. VCS is also known as source
control or revision control.


VCS helps software teams work more efficiently by:


 Protecting source code: VCS protects source code from errors and
degradation, and makes it easier to restore previous versions.
 Managing multiple versions: VCS manages all versions of code, but
presents a single version at a time.
 Collaborating: VCS allows team members to contribute to a shared
codebase independently.

,  Backing up: VCS acts as a backup for projects, without the need to create
multiple copies.



Benefits of the version control system:

 Enhances the project development speed by providing efficient collaboration,
 Leverages the productivity, expedites product delivery, and skills of the
employees through better communication and assistance,
 Reduce possibilities of errors and conflicts meanwhile project development
through traceability to every small change,
 Employees or contributors of the project can contribute from anywhere
irrespective of the different geographical locations through this VCS,
 For each different contributor to the project, a different working copy is
maintained and not merged to the main file unless the working copy is
validated. The most popular example is Git, Helix core, Microsoft TFS,
 Helps in recovery in case of any disaster or contingent situation,
 Informs us about Who, What, When, Why changes have been made.


Use of Version Control System:

 A repository: It can be thought of as a database of changes. It contains all the
edits and historical versions (snapshots) of the project.
 Copy of Work (sometimes called as checkout): It is the personal copy of all
the files in a project. You can edit to this copy, without affecting the work of
others and you can finally commit your changes to a repository when you are
done making your changes.
 Working in a group: Consider yourself working in a company where you are
asked to work on some live project. You can’t change the main code as it is in
production, and any change may cause inconvenience to the user, also you are
working in a team so you need to collaborate with your team to and adapt their
changes. Version control helps you with the, merging different requests to
main repository without making any undesirable changes. You may test the
functionalities without putting it live, and you don’t need to download and set
up each time, just pull the changes and do the changes, test it and merge it
back. It may be visualized as.

Types of Version Control Systems:

 Local Version Control Systems
 Centralized Version Control Systems
 Distributed Version Control Systems

, Local Version Control Systems:

A local version control system (LVCS) is a simple way to track changes to files on
a single computer:


 How it works
Each version of a file is stored as a patch, which is a set of changes made since
the previous version.
 Benefits
You can:
 Save different versions of your files
 Compare different versions of your files
 Go back to a previous state if you make a mistake

 Drawbacks
LVCSs are less flexible than other types of version control systems and are not
ideal for collaboration:
 It's difficult to collaborate with other developers
 You have to manually copy and share your files
 There's no backup of your files if your computer crashes or gets lost

LVCSs are primarily used by solo developers or small teams that work on the same
computer. If you're working with a team, you might want to consider using a
centralized or distributed version control system instead:

Centralized Version Control Systems:

Centralized version control systems contain just one repository globally and
every user need to commit for reflecting one’s changes in the repository. It is
possible for others to see your changes by updating.
A centralized version control system (CVCS) stores a project's version history in a
central server, and uses a client-server model.
In a CVCS, developers can:
 Request the latest version of the work from the central server
 Update their changes to the latest version
 Push commits to the server