Concurrent Versions System (CVS)

• CVS is a version control system used by individual programmers in large teams.
• It allows developers to access their code from anywhere with an Internet connection
• It maintains a history of changes made to all files in the project directory
• It allows users to have an automatic backup of all their work and the ability to rollback to previous versions, if need be
• CVS is run on a central server for all team members to access. Team members can simply checkout code, and then check it back in when done

The process of updating a file to the database consists of three steps:
• Get current version of file from database
• Merge any changes between the database version and the local version
• Commit the file back to the database


Two pieces of software are required to setup CVS:
• Server
• Client
The server handles the database end and the client handles the local side.

Tracking Changes
The standard tool used for tracking changes is “diff”.

Authentication
The user needs to authenticate to the CVS server. Following information needs to be specified:
• CVS server
• Directory on that server which has the CVS files
• Username
• Authentication method
The combination of all of these is sometimes called the “CVSROOT”

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