[Infrastructures] RCS/CVS

[Brendan Strejcek]

Mark Ferlatte wrote:

> Well, we use CVS, not RCS, but I can't imagine living without it.

I prefer RCS to CVS for system administration. It is much simpler and
easier to understand, which means it is less likely to get in the way.
I also find that simply locking files is almost always what I actually
want. For example, if I am editing DNS zone files, other sysadmins
really should just wait, not take their own checkout and manage the
merge later.

I was left several CVS systems by a predecessor, and replacing them
with similar RCS setups has resulted in a more understandable and less
brittle system.

Further, teaching CVS to someone who has not used it for a development
project is difficult, while teaching someone RCS is a snap.

Unless you really need advanced version control system features like
branching or tagging, I would recommend RCS over CVS.

--
Brendan Strejcek
Senior System Administrator
The University of Chicago
Department of Computer Science
http://www.cs.uchicago.edu/people/brendan