suggestions for CVS use

Michael O'Donnell mod+gnhlug at std.com
Wed May 7 14:59:10 EDT 2003


>>I've always liked ClearCase, though (last I heard) it's
>>still very expensive.  Is there any OSS stuff that
>>approximates the ClearCase model?
>
>Not that I've heard of.  OSS development is inherently different
>from the type of development which ClearCase solves problems for.


Um, what?  "inherently different" ?  maybe I'm suffering
from midafternoon stupor or something, but I've re-read
your response several times and I don't understand it.

I was trying to ask whether there are any Open
Source software packages that do Revision Control or
Configuration Management and which work anything like
the way ClearCase works.

The essence of ClearCase (for those who don't know)
is that it maintains an entire collection of versioned
files in their own filesystem.  You then mount such a
filesystem from a ClearCase server and the versions
of your files (and directories, which are also just
versioned files) that are visible are the ones that
satisfy rules you've specified in a config file.
Change those rules and, like magic, the versions that
are visible change accordingly.

It's useful software because it's very flexible
(overwhelmingly so at times) and boosts productivity
when correctly used.  It's also expensive.

Since I can point to any number of OSS packages that
exist because somebody wanted a work-alike for some
useful-but-expensive software, it seemed reasonable
to ask whether there's some OSS package available that
works like ClearCase...




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