Printer-friendly version

(notes from a session at the DrupalCon 2010 Unconference)

slides at http://michaelcole.com/drupalversioncontrol

• purpose: go back and forth through time
• 3 basic commands: commit, update, diff.  "all the rest is accounting"
• for Drupal, two key systems: CVS (core and contrib) and Subversion (everybody else)
• setup a server in 30 seconds: unfuddle.com, cvsdude.org, assembla.com
• client tools are usually command-line. 
  • Mac tool for SVN: Versions (Subversion only)
  • Mac tool for CVS: http://developer.apple.com/internet/opensource/cvsoverview.html
• Quick start
  1. set up the server (see above) if not using an existing server -- get a "project" URL
  2. install client and checkout URL to a local folder
  3. make changes.
     • create "trunk" folder for current version
     • when dev version is 2.x, 1.x will be in a "branches" folder
  4. commit changes (easier with GUI)
  5. Teamwork!
     • update before commit!  Last person to update "loses"!
  6. conflict resolution - use diff to compare conflicting code
  7. review log. Not just a backup, it's a file system through space and time!
• Questions & Tips:
  • use Backup & Migrate module to save database into file system so that it gets added to repository
  • for production data, data comes "down," only code goes "up"
  • drush can do a lot of this stuff, including committing from dev server's command line to production server