Books

Average customer rating:

Save your money
Why did I buy this?
Useful; worth the price if you don't like man pages
Can't keep up with the O'Reilly standards
Online documentation is better.

CVS Pocket Reference, Second Edition
Gregor Purdy
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0596005679

Book Description

The beauty of open source is making code freely available. The curse is trying to organize the chaos that code development can evolve into. CVS, the Concurrent Version System, is an open source tool for managing and distributing source code. It allows multiple users dispersed over a wide geographic area to work on the same file at the same time, using a shared directory. Under CVS, multiple users can check out files from a directory tree, make changes, and then commit those changes back into the directory. CVS is a pivotal tool on many projects involving information or software, whether in-house or conducted over the Internet. The CVS Pocket Reference is a quick reference guide to help administrators and users set up and manage source code development. This small book delivers the core concepts of version control along with a complete command reference and guide to configuration and repository set up. The book includes:

A version control primer that teaches the general concepts of version control and how it applies to CVS.
Instructions on how to install and configure CVS for Unix®-like operating systems.
Administrator and user sections, with complete listings of their respective commands and options for configuring and using CVS.
Details on how to import files from RCS and SCCS directories into CVS.
References to related useful materials.

Much more than a quick list of commands and options, this little book is packed with a surprising amount of detail--including an overview of background concepts, thorough descriptions on how to use and administer a CVS repository, and discussions of CVS-related files and how to manage them--all in a convenient reference format. This edition covers the CVS 1.11 and includes new commands for querying a central CVS repository, new configuration parameters, and new options for setting up a server for remote access. The book is a perfect companion for open source developers. The CVS Pocket Reference also contains tips on common tasks, such as converting projects from other revision control formats to CVS. It's an absolute must for developers who need an on-the-job guide for quick answers to CVS dilemmas.

Customer Reviews:

Save your money.......2004-03-08

This book is so inferior to the available on-line documentation you shouldn't waste your money. The book is little more than an incomplete list of the available CVS commands with no helpful explainations.

Why did I buy this?.......2003-06-22

A couple of years ago I started using CVS for large projects with lots of files. I bought this book back then, but have used it very little. Everything is in the UNIX man pages, and there is online documents.

Useful; worth the price if you don't like man pages.......2002-08-09

This pocket reference summarises the basics of CVS. It's enough to get you going, but I wouldn't rely on it for a major project. The explanation of how CVS works is short; the part I've found most useful is the handy table of CVS commands and options in the second half of the book.

However, there is extensive online documentation for CVS that goes into far greater depth than this book, is more up to date, and is free. Even though I've had the book, I've still needed to refer to this online documentation to learn the finer points of tags, branching, and other CVS features.

So it's really a matter of whether you want to pay to have some (but not all) useful information in a handy booklet. If that appeals to you, great, this isn't a bad book. But you can certainly live without it by using your computer as a reference tool.

Can't keep up with the O'Reilly standards.......2002-07-28

This book fails to be a pocket reference. The book's index is a joke and as a result your topic of interest is not listed or, and that is a major drawback for reference books, discussed somewhere else. And if you find your topic the information presented is often not sufficient to answer your question. Although I keep this book within arm reach on my desk, I always use the web for my CVS questions. My advice for people with basic CVS knowledge and the ability to use CVS from the command line: search the web and pick one of the many CVS related web sites as your starting point for more information on CVS. This books does not keep up with the O'Reilly standards and is therefor best ignored.

Online documentation is better........2002-07-08

It's an OK book if you have some knowledge of CVS already but as most people would use CVS in an networked environment the online documentation is actually better and up to date.

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