Re: In search of a version control system

From: Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon@gmail.com>
Date: Oct 8, 2012, 18:24 UTC
Message-ID: <CALkWK0kCbLxPMbxh=CLAE8UkkNFNqDa1QbtdM_-Q+Qr3SRh46Q@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <1349719581.76671.YahooMailNeo@web122505.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>

Hi Maurice,

Maurice Francois wrote:

> The needs are not that big, that is to say it is academic and research projects. A project can have dozens of
> Word, PDF and program files (Stata do-files, SAS programs, SPPS syntaxe
> files and R scripts) and their corresponding log files.

Note that Git wasn't designed for big binary files, and doesn't perform well between them.

> Like many people, I hesitate between Git and Subversion.

I honestly cannot comprehend why someone would choose Subversion over Git for a fresh repository today.

> I like the idea of distributed version control system. But is that such a system eliminates the need for a real server ? Can we just set up a repository on one of the computers in our workplace and give access to that repository via a local connection or via a remote VPN connection ?

Yes, you can have a "blessed" server, just like in Subversion. And yes, you can access it over git://, http://, https://, or ssh://.

> So, is it possible to lock a file while someone work on it ?

No, and I honestly think it's a bad idea. Read up more about Git, and try to understand how people work with it.

Ram