Let's first use an example to grasp better what Version Control entails before discussing its details more deeply.
Imagine being part of a multinational corporation with offices and employees spread worldwide, facing significant obstacles at some time or other. No matter their size or scale, there will always be obstacles they need to overcome in their pursuit of business growth and expansion. These businesses face many significant hurdles that must be navigated before success can be realized.
Challenges
Collaboration
Many people are in different locations and need to talk for some reason. Or a group from another region is involved with the same project.
Storing versions
Keeping all the commits together in one place can be challenging in this situation.
Restorative Versions
Sometimes it is necessary to go back and look at older versions in order to identify the root cause of a bug.
Find Out What Happened
Knowing what was changed in the past versions of source code is crucial. Also, knowing where the exact changes are made within a particular file.
Backup
All efforts are wasted if the user's system or hard drive fails, and no backup is available.
Solution
Version control to the rescue!
The Version Control System allows multinational corporations to collaborate with their employees. Also, it helps in backing up files on remote repositories. Developers will be able to go back and revert to previous commits or the last source code version if necessary.
Let's now focus on the basics of Version Control. To understand Version Control Control, it is essential that we first grasp the basic principles of Version Control.
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What Is Version Control?
Version Control refers to overseeing and tracking changes made to software code over time, using software called version control systems as tools for teams of software developers to keep an accurate record. As development environments have grown faster, version control has become more crucial - particularly beneficites to DevOps teams as it reduces development times while increasing successful deployments.
Software that utilizes version control keeps track of changes made to code via an online database, enabling developers to compare older versions in order to spot mistakes quickly and minimize disruption across teams.
Source code is an irreplaceable asset to almost every software project and should be protected as such. Source codes contain knowledge developers have acquired over time regarding specific issues; version control safeguards their source code against both catastrophic events and causal degradation caused by human errors.
As software developers work in teams, they continuously write and revise source code. Coding for software components, apps or projects typically takes the form of "file trees". At the same time, the organization of this code usually follows folder structures.
Version control helps teams avoid these difficulties by keeping track of each contributor and eliminating conflicting work. Changes made to one section may conflict with those made simultaneously by another programmer; therefore, these issues must be solved promptly without holding up other team members. Furthermore, any modification in software development could introduce bugs, so testing must co-occur until an updated software version can be trusted before being made public.
Version control software should support developers' desired methods without forcing them into adopting one particular workflow or operating system. Furthermore, it should work across platforms without forcing anyone into adopting specific platforms or toolchains; finally, effective version control systems provide for an uninterrupted flow of code changes instead of locking files that slow the progress of other developers.
Version control is essential to software teams. Without it, they may struggle to identify changes made that have become accessible by users; or create incompatible changes when merging two pieces of unrelated work, which requires time spent untangling changes. You might have used version control in the past; as a developer, perhaps creating files with suffixes like "final" or "latest", only later realizing there had been yet another final version created, or commenting out certain code blocks so they cannot be utilized later - however, these challenges should all be solved using version control!
Version control software has become indispensable to modern software teams' professional practices. When working on solo projects or small team efforts involving version control systems, developers will soon appreciate its powerful advantages; once used to them, they won't even consider using version control outside custom software development projects!
Why Should I Use Version Control In Project Management Software?
It tracks changes in documents and files so that you always know the latest version. You can also keep old versions if you need to go back and see what has changed. Typically, projects create a large number of documents - from reports on the project to deliverables. You can track and manage changes in these documents using version control or version management.
Other files, such as images and videos, software, and other deliverables with multiple iterations, can be controlled by version control.
Also read: Everything you need to know about developing a software
Version Control Systems Have Many Benefits
Version control is an essential tool for software teams and DevOps. Version control software helps teams maintain efficiency and agility by allowing developers to move more quickly.
Over the last few decades, there have been many improvements in version control systems (VCS). Some are more advanced than others. Some VCS tools are called SCM (Source Code Management) or RCS. Git is one of the more popular VCSs in use. Git belongs to the Distributed Version Control Systems (DVCS) category, also known as Distributed VCS. More on this later. As with many other popular VCSs, Git, too, is open-source and free. Version control is a powerful tool that can achieve several benefits.
- The complete history of all changes made to each file over the years: It includes all changes made over time by multiple users. It includes the deletion and creation of files and changes to their content. The ability of different VCSs to handle file renaming or moving varies. The history of changes should include information such as the date, author and purpose. The complete history allows you to go back and fix bugs in previous versions. Nearly everything can be considered "an older version" of software actively being worked on.
- They are branching and merging: It's a given that team members will work simultaneously, but individuals who work alone can also benefit from being able to manage independent streams of change. Creating a branch in VCS software allows developers to keep multiple work streams separate while allowing them to merge. Software teams often branch for every feature, each release or even both. When teams decide to use the branching and merge facilities of VCS, they can select from various workflows.
- Traceability: Being able to track each software change and link it with project management software like Jira and be able to annotate every change with a note describing its purpose can not only help with root cause analyses and other forensics. When you read the code and try to understand its purpose and design, having the history annotated at your fingertips can help developers make harmonious and correct changes in line with the long-term plan of the system. It is beneficial when working with legacy code. This allows developers to estimate the future workload accurately.
It is possible to create software without version control. However, this exposes the project to huge risks that would not be acceptable to any professional team. The question then isn't whether version control should be used but which versioning system.
Version Management Vs. Configuration Management
Version management is a part of configuration management. Configuration management serves two purposes.
- Manage changes in a project
- Information reliability can be improved
Version control helps you reach your objectives by monitoring all changes. That way, everyone always works from the latest and correct version. It also reveals who made changes, when they happened and which version of files or documents was used at each step in their production cycle.
Version control does not offer insight into why changes were implemented or their effect on other project aspects, while configuration management systems do. They enable you to better comprehend how alterations to one requirement affect other requirements. Imagine this: when building your new home, an electrician wants to relocate its electrical panel one foot further away than indicated on your plans.
Version control would track this change; reviewers and approvals would assess any impacts; a configuration management system would monitor any issues, warning you if moving the panel puts it in danger with water lines. Configuration Management Systems are most appropriate when employed on large, interlinked and complex projects such as construction design-related ones.
The Importance Of Version Control
Let's examine some of the most common scenarios when there is no version control to illustrate its importance:
- Scenario 1: When you look for a file in your project, you find that you've got multiple versions and need to know which one is correct.
- Scenario 2: After receiving feedback from an outside reviewer, a team member updates a document only to discover that they need to update the correct version.
- Scenario 3: An approver signed a file, but you realized it had been re-signed. It would be best if you got them to sign it again.
When dealing with multiple revisions and needing help to control versions effectively, the risk of using the wrong version is high. Every time you have someone work from the incorrect file, it wastes time and creates rework. It also increases the chance of mistakes being made in the end product.
What happens when someone accidentally edits, deletes or changes a document? All of the work done by your team can be recovered if you have version control software that allows for the restoration of old versions.
The file versioning tool makes it easy to identify which version is the most recent and allows you to restore older versions.
What Is Version Control And How Can It Help You Deliver Better?
Version control improves the way developers work together to develop software. This blog post explains how VCS and Git can help you deliver better. Version Control, or Source Code Management, allows software developers to work and manage their code. It is a valuable tool for software developers who work with different codebases, collaborate and release new versions. When done correctly, source code management prevents irreversible code changes and improves how developers work together.
The Guide To Version Control Systems
VCSs (Revision Control Systems) permit real-time software code changes to be tracked, corrected or reversed. Think of VCS as a chronological timeline representing your code changes represented by branches - with the Main branch being at its heart in most basic workflow scenarios.
Commits are vital for moving projects forward in time and space. Commits mark points where copies of source code files can be uploaded or pushed into your repository - your version-controlled project remains stored there!
Key takeaways from this are to create more branches from points of progress in the main branch, typically used for developing features without impacting central branch development and change; when working on features for version 1.0, they should push their changes from a branch into another duplicate of the main branch before merging back their changes after developing work is complete.
Effective use of VCS involves always maintaining your main branch with clean and working versions of all code, keeping it updated across every branch in your repository, with developers pulling down updates as they join; without spending unnecessary time searching for branches to build applications on their computer; however, when running multiple instances simultaneously requiring different repositories or branches for instance builds; workflow may become complicated and more challenging to navigate than expected.
Tagging code versions in the main branch is another common practice, often linked with releases. With an access token for your repository, anyone with knowledge can look up that tag and view this codebase release. Alternatively, running commands allows users to quickly identify differences among branches and new commits into one branch; VCSs keep track of who, what and when changes were made in code.
Assuming a developer works on their code from their machine and commits their progress toward version 1.0, when ready, they push all their changes to a branch where other developers could pull and make further branches from stable versions such as version 1.0 to continue development of version 1.1 and track any modifications as the app scales and expands. Keeping track of changes helps teams keep an accurate account of changes made over time is also beneficial as each version becomes an archive for tracking source code changes during application scale and growth.
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A Guide On Git Flow And Branching Strategies
Many other tools, such as IDEs, help to make it valuable for managing source code. GitFlow is one of the strategies that have emerged for using Git. Gitflow uses a branching approach. It was popularized because of its ability to handle large projects that had many contributors.
This is the summary of GitFlow.
- Two main branches are available in a single repository: master and develop.
- This branch contains the production code.
- The development branch contains the code. The changes are merged into the main branch and then tagged once the code is ready for release.
- The developers will check out the branch called to develop and then create feature branches to work on their development. These features can be added back in the branch named develop.
- The release branches used to deploy the releases will also merge with the main branch.
- Suppose there are any problems with the production release. In that case, the hotfix branch will branch off the main branch and accept the changes before merging into the develop and main branches.
- Before merging to the master or developing branches, you must create a Pull Request.
Maintaining this structure can be difficult when starting a new project. This can slow down software development. Gitflow's pull request merge model requires multiple approval levels to release a new version. Simple is suitable for new development, and it's great for teams that are high performers to release quickly.
Trunk-based Development and Gitflow Flow provide alternative strategies for branching. This article demonstrates that a VCS is only suited to some workflows. Choose an approach, and then optimize/adjust it as necessary.
Not All Branches Are Created Equal
Using source code management does not mean that "best practices" in software development are no longer valid. It does not guarantee its effectiveness. Consider these things when using VCS.
- Evaluation of the project: How does your VCS use align with that of the team and project? Iterating quickly is important, but how critical? Do you want to start a new project or maintain an existing one? What is the performance of your team in terms of software delivery? Does the team have a large percentage of failures in change?
- VCS Rules: Establish some team practices on when and how to commit. Demonstrate a sample commit message. Please set up a style guide for the commit messages you want your team to use to ensure they are informative and consistent. Consider if a daily rule of committing at least one time per day is a good idea.
- Decide what goes into the repository: Choose a repository structure that is appropriate for your ecosystem. What should be the location of workspace configuration and infrastructure files, such as code?
- Last but not least, integrate your VCS workflow into your software release: Consistency can be achieved by establishing a cadence to tag release candidates. We deliver at Cisin every day. Our agile processes are designed to accommodate this cadence. Your sprint stories should be based on acceptance criteria. The completion of feature tasks is a requirement. Using VCS can be an excellent way to start your pipelines for software development. VCS doesn't guarantee that you won't see code merges into main branches. The developers should continue building and testing their code within their own environment.
Working in teams is a key component to delivering better. Version control systems allow for effective revisions and versions. Discuss how to deliver code once a stable code version is achieved effectively.
Conclusion
It would help if you now had a good understanding of the basic principles of Version Control, as well as the advantages of Version Control. You now know why Version Control is used by small and large companies alike.
