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(cvs.info.gz) What is CVS?

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 1.1 What is CVS?
 ================
 
 CVS is a version control system.  Using it, you can record the history
 of your source files.
 
    For example, bugs sometimes creep in when software is modified, and
 you might not detect the bug until a long time after you make the
 modification.  With CVS, you can easily retrieve old versions to see
 exactly which change caused the bug.  This can sometimes be a big help.
 
    You could of course save every version of every file you have ever
 created.  This would however waste an enormous amount of disk space.
 CVS stores all the versions of a file in a single file in a clever way
 that only stores the differences between versions.
 
    CVS also helps you if you are part of a group of people working on
 the same project.  It is all too easy to overwrite each others' changes
 unless you are extremely careful.  Some editors, like GNU Emacs, try to
 make sure that the same file is never modified by two people at the
 same time.  Unfortunately, if someone is using another editor, that
 safeguard will not work.  CVS solves this problem by insulating the
 different developers from each other.  Every developer works in his own
 directory, and CVS merges the work when each developer is done.
 
    CVS started out as a bunch of shell scripts written by Dick Grune,
 posted to the newsgroup `comp.sources.unix' in the volume 6 release of
 July, 1986.  While no actual code from these shell scripts is present
 in the current version of CVS much of the CVS conflict resolution
 algorithms come from them.
 
    In April, 1989, Brian Berliner designed and coded CVS.  Jeff Polk
 later helped Brian with the design of the CVS module and vendor branch
 support.
 
    You can get CVS in a variety of ways, including free download from
 the Internet.  For more information on downloading CVS and other CVS
 topics, see:
 
      `http://www.cvshome.org/'
 
    There is a mailing list, known as <info-cvs@gnu.org>, devoted to
 CVS.  To subscribe or unsubscribe write to <info-cvs-request@gnu.org>.
 If you prefer a Usenet group, there is a one-way mirror (posts to the
 email list are usually sent to the news group, but not visa versa) of
 <info-cvs@gnu.org> at `news:gnu.cvs.help'.  The right Usenet group for
 posts is `news:comp.software.config-mgmt' which is for CVS discussions
 (along with other configuration management systems).  In the future, it
 might be possible to create a `comp.software.config-mgmt.cvs', but
 probably only if there is sufficient CVS traffic on
 `news:comp.software.config-mgmt'.
 
    You can also subscribe to the <bug-cvs@gnu.org> mailing list,
 described in more detail in  BUGS.  To subscribe send mail to
 <bug-cvs-request@gnu.org>.  There is a two-way Usenet mirror (posts to
 the Usenet group are usually sent to the email list and visa versa) of
 <bug-cvs@gnu.org> named `news:gnu.cvs.bug'.
 
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