Re: Configuration Management for Ada on Unix

[bjw@f111.iassf.easams.com.au (Brendan WALKER)]

In article <qw6u3wytapf.fsf@gargantua.enst.fr>,
Samuel Tardieu  <sam@inf.enst.fr> wrote:
>
>PLG: A *free* CM system (and more!) that is built on top of RCS is
>     CVS. You can grab it from http://www.cyclic.com/ (I think)
>

My current project (~$50M, 120 man-years) is using CVS as the basis
for our developmental configuration management, and have found it to
be very good indeed.

Note that there are 2 main advantages of using CVS over SCCS/RCS alone.

The first is that CVS allows more than one user to be modifying a
file at a time, rather then the SCCS/RCS single file lock system. This
may sound crazy at first, but it is actually very good. What CVS does is
automatically "merge" the changes made on a particular version of the
file. If any "clashes" are found (Ie, the same line is modified by
more than one user), then the last one to check-in is warned of the
clash and it must addressed before that version of the file can be
checked-in to the baseline. The power of this is that you progress
from "file" change control to "line" change control.

The second advantage is that CVS allows the creation of subsystems, which
are a logical grouping of files and directories that together make
up a subsystem. Each subsystem can be "checked out" as a whole with
a single command. Using this mechanism configuration of a large baseline
becomes more manageable, particularily when you "tag" each file in a
subsystem to correspond to (for example) a complete unit tested "release",
or an "interface release", etc. 

All this with a "free" tool...... 

PS: It shouldn't make any difference because CM is CM, but our project
is C++, not Ada :-)

Best Regards,


-- 
Brendan Walker	        | The opinions expressed above are obviously
IASSF Project, 	        | the ramblings of a troubled mind, and 
GMS S3I (Australia)     | therefore not those of my employer.