Version Control Overview

AcuBench provides support for third party version control systems that include a Windows command-line interface.

Version (source) control systems help developers manage and maintain projects by creating a database of project files and resources, which the version control system monitors and protects. In a team environment, this is essential to allow multiple developers to work in the same project without overwriting or otherwise interfering with one another’s work. Developers view and modify project files and resources locally, then return their changes to the version control system. The system logs changes so that prior versions of an item are easily retrieved or restored, and integrates each developer’s changes with changes made by the rest of the team.

Most version control systems support the following basic actions:

Version control systems perform a number of useful functions. Their automatic logging facilities can be useful in creating a complete and detailed project history. Version control can also be used to help with consistency management (maintaining a consistent look and feel between modules in an application), and make it easy to branch and merge code (allowing testing of an upcoming release, for example, without affecting the code base for the current release). Version control systems do not take the place of good planning and communication, but they can make managing team contributions to an application significantly easier.