CSC/ECE 517 Fall 2009/wiki1a 4 srhi4

Introduction

Source Code Management (also called Revision Control) is a technique used to manage and monitor the codebase of any software in order to track the changes made to the code. It plays an important role in a setup where there are many people (software developers) have to modify / work on the same code. In such a scenario, merging different versions of the same code and availability of the latest version of the code becomes a critical factor, SCM helps in doing that.

Motivation for Source code management(SCM)

In a development environment, a single project can simultaneously be in multiple phases. One team would be working on building new features into the product. A second team would be working on fixing bugs (Tech support) while a third team concentrates on prototypes for future development. Different lines are created for each of these items – Functional line, development line, maintenance line, release line, integration line and so on. In such an environment, management of the codebase becomes critical for the following reasons

    — Allow simultaneous / parallel development of software. 
    — Integrate code changes from different teams / developers
    — Propagate bug fixes to future versions of the software
    — Isolate, coordinate and tidily separate work item units
    — Track and revert to older versions
    — Keep related projects in sync with one another