On Fri, Sep 09, 2005 at 04:05:33PM +1000, Edwin Humphries wrote: > We have several Linux software products, and have recently had enquiries > about customised versions for specific customers. We're happy to do it, > but I'm looking for a way to manage the codebase so that when we do an > upgrade, we can upgrade the customised versions without overwriting the > customised code. The code is delicious mix of C, PERL, PHP and bash > scripts (don't ask). > > My understanding is that CVS is not the tool for this job, but does > anybody know of a tool that is good for this?
Any of the distributed revision control systems are quite good for this -- the model of "many disparate versions with a common core" is quite similar to the archetypical distributed RCS use case of "many disparate hackers producing different changes against a common core". CVS can, in theory, support this, but you will go bald, crazy, or (most likely) both trying to do it. Subversion is a bit better, but it's still limiting for practical purposes, primarily because it's merging support is pretty primitive. To give you an idea of the dancing you have to go through: http://plone.org/development/info/merging A distributed RCS will take a little getting used to, if you're used to the crippled way that CVS does branching, you won't be used to the cool stuff which you can do with powerful branches. But with a bit of practice, you will learn to love it, and you'll never go back. - Matt A CVS refugee
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