Version Control Systems:
Definition: Version control systems are a category of software tools that helps in
recording changes made to files by keeping a track of modifications done in the code.
Types of Version Control Systems:
Local Version Control Systems
Centralized Version Control Systems
Distributed Version Control Systems
Local Version Control Systems: It is one of the simplest forms and has a database
that kept all the changes to files under revision control. RCS is one of the most common
VCS tools. It keeps patch sets (differences between files) in a special format on disk.
By adding up all the patches it can then re-create what any file looked like at any point
in time.
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.
Two things are required to make your changes visible to others which are:
You commit
They update
The benefit of CVCS (Centralized Version Control Systems) makes collaboration
amongst developers along with providing an insight to a certain extent on what
everyone else is doing on the project. It allows administrators to fine-grained control
over who can do what.
Distributed Version Control Systems: Distributed version control systems contain
multiple repositories. Each user has their own repository and working copy. Just
committing your changes will not give others access to your changes. This is because
commit will reflect those changes in your local repository and you need to push them
in order to make them visible on the central repository. Similarly, When you update,
you do not get others’ changes unless you have first pulled those changes into your
repository.
To make your changes visible to others, 4 things are required:
You commit
You push
They pull
They update
The most popular distributed version control systems are Git, and Mercurial. They
help us overcome the problem of single point of failure.
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.
Purpose of Version Control:
Multiple people can work simultaneously on a single project. Everyone works
on and edits their own copy of the files and it is up to them when they wish to
share the changes made by them with the rest of the team.
It also enables one person to use multiple computers to work on a project, so
it is valuable even if you are working by yourself.
It integrates the work that is done simultaneously by different members of the
team. In some rare cases, when conflicting edits are made by two people to
the same line of a file, then human assistance is requested by the version
control system in deciding what should be done.
Version control provides access to the historical versions of a project. This is
insurance against computer crashes or data loss. If any mistake is made, you
can easily roll back to a previous version. It is also possible to undo specific
edits that too without losing the work done in the meanwhile. It can be easily
known when, why, and by whom any part of a file was edited.
GitHub
GitHub is a cloud-based hosting service that helps developers store and manage their
code, as well as track and control changes to their code over time. It also provides a
platform for developers to collaborate on projects and share their code with others.
GitHub is built on top of Git, a version control system that allows developers to track
changes to their code and create branches and merges to experiment with different
ideas. GitHub makes it easy to use Git by providing a web interface and other tools to
help developers manage their code.
GitHub is used by millions of developers around the world, including both individuals
and teams working on projects of all sizes. It is a popular choice for both open source
and commercial software development.
Steps to create git hub
1. Create a GitHub account. You can create a GitHub account for free at [Link].
2. Create a new repository. Once you have a GitHub account, you can create a new
repository. A repository is a place where you can store your code and track changes
over time.
3. Clone the repository to your local machine. Once you have created a repository,
you can clone it to your local machine. This will create a copy of the repository on your
computer.
4. Make changes to the code. You can now make changes to the code in the local
repository.
5. Add the changes to the staging area. Once you have made your changes, you need
to add them to the staging area. The staging area is a temporary place where you can
store the changes that you want to commit.
6. Commit the changes. Once you have added your changes to the staging area, you
can commit them. This will create a snapshot of the changes and store it in the
repository.
7. Push the changes to the remote repository on GitHub. Once you have committed
your changes, you need to push them to the remote repository on GitHub. This will
make your changes available to other people who have access to the repository.
There are three types of GitHub accounts:
●Personal accounts: Personal accounts are free and can be used by any one. Personal
accounts can own an unlimited number of public and private repositories.
●Organization accounts: Organization accounts are designed for teamsof developers.
Organization accounts can have multiple members andcan own an unlimited number
of public and private repositories.
●Enterprise accounts: Enterprise accounts are designed for large organizations.
Enterprise accounts can have multiple organizations and can host their
own GitHub servers
With Git
●Track changes to your code over time. Git creates a complete snapshot of your
codebase for every commit, so you can easily see what changes have been made and
when. This is essential for any software development project, as it allows you to
experiment with different ideas without fear of breaking your code.
●Collaborate with other developers on projects. Git makes it easy to share your code
with others and work on different parts of a project simultaneously. You can create
branches to work on different features or bug fixes, and then merge your changes
back into the main codebase when you are finished.
●Review code before it is merged into the main codebase. Git makes it easy to create
pull requests, which allow you to share your changes with others and get feed back
before merging them into the main codebase. This helps to ensure that the code is
high quality and meets the project's standards.
●Recover from lost code. Git creates a complete snapshot of your codebase for every
commit, so you can easily revert to a previous version if you accidentally overwrite or
delete a file.
Without Git
Without Git, it can be difficult to track changes to your code over time, collaborate
with other developers, and recover from lost code. Here are some of the challenges
of working without Git:
●Tracking changes: It can be difficult to keep track of changes to your code over time
if you are not using a version control system. This can lead to problems such as
accidentally overwriting code or losing track of changes that you have made.
●Collaboration: It can be difficult to collaborate with other developers on projects if
you are not using a version control system. This is because it can be difficult to merge
changes from multiple sources without introducing conflicts.
●Code review: It can be difficult to review code before it is merged into the main
codebase if you are not using a version control system. This can lead to problems such
as bugs and security vulnerabilities being introduced into the codebase.
●Recovery: It can be difficult to recover from lost code if you are not using a version
control system. If you accidentally overwrite or delete a file, you may not be able to
get it back