Java™ Application Development on Linux - Dator

Chapter 8Know What You Have:CVSSource control is such a necessary part of good development practice that itranks right up there with a sound compiler as a critical part of any softwareproject. It may seem like only an administrative overhead to newcomers, butits effect on a project of any size will be felt over time; it’s not the first versionof a project that needs source control so much as versions 2 and beyond. Andit can be a life saver.One of the Linux tools that is most appreciated on projects around theglobe is the Concurrent Versioning System, CVS. 1 It is one of the best, mostreliable pieces of software that these authors have ever used. It should be partof your repertoire of software skills, even when you’re not running on Linux.But enough praise; back to practicalities.1. As we were writing this chapter, the core developers of CVS released version 1.0 of a newversion control system called Subversion. This new system supposedly contains many improvementsover CVS. We do not doubt this, and we recommend that you take a look at Subversionbefore you select a version control tool. Meanwhile, we know CVS, and most Open Sourceprojects are currently managed with CVS. Choosing CVS won’t be a bad choice.189