Go to the first, previous, next, last section, table of contents.

Supported Version Control Systems

VC currently works with three different version control systems or "back ends": RCS, CVS, and SCCS.

RCS is a free version control system that is available from the Free Software Foundation. It is perhaps the most mature of the supported back ends, and the VC commands are conceptually closest to RCS. Almost everything you can do with RCS can be done through VC.

CVS is built on top of RCS, and extends the features of RCS, allowing for more sophisticated release management, and concurrent multi-user development. However, its concepts are rather different from those of RCS and VC; consequently, some VC commands work differently when used with CVS. Note that before using CVS you must set up a repository, which is a subject too complex to treat here. See section Using VC with CVS.

SCCS is a proprietary but widely used version control system. In terms of capabilities, it is the weakest of the the three that VC supports. VC compensates for certain features missing in SCCS (snapshots, for example) by implementing them itself, but some other VC features, such as multiple branches, are not available with SCCS. You should use SCCS only if for some reason you cannot use RCS.


Go to the first, previous, next, last section, table of contents.