Version control software

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Thread Starter

Kamalr

I am looking for some s/ware app. that will manage the storage of my various PLCs, flow meters etc config. and allow me to enter simple revision info. for each configuration. Does any one know of such a software?

The software should allow me to store configurations for various devices and track config. modifications via simple text fields. I would like the program to keep at least the two previous config modifications with some description of why the config was modified. I am sure something like this exists, if anyone knows, please advise.
 
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Johan Bengtsson

The tool I use for this is CVS
It is avaliable in some different flavours, from text based to a gui-based version availiable for linux, windows and mac
http://www.cvsgui.org
it is a GPL:ed software and availiable for download at the above adress.

Other tools availiable exist, such as visual sourcesafe, but that one lacks some functions I wanted (so I discarded that one for my use at least)

/Johan Bengtsson

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P&L, Innovation in training
Box 252, S-281 23 H{ssleholm SWEDEN
Tel: +46 451 49 460, Fax: +46 451 89 833
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet: http://www.pol.se/
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Hakan Ozevin

Siemens has such a software for field devices. As far as I know, It is not only for Siemens products (believe it or not), but also third party devices that have any communication facility (Hart, Profibus,..)
This software is called PDM (Process Device Manager). Check it out in:
www. fielddevices.com

Hakan Ozevin
 
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Fernando Gomes

Can you tell me what do you like in CVS that SourceSafe doesn't support? Concurrent development? Anything else? I'm trying to make this decision myself, so your experience will be a good starting point to me!

TIA

Fernando
 
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Marcel van Helten

Check out CIMPLICITY Manager at www.gefanuc.com. This software is able to version control, central storage, etc. to several PLC and HMI packages. To adapt the package to any other filebased program is quite easy.

 
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Matthew Von-Maszewski

Reasonable version management is possible with many tools, including pkzip/tar. So the question is one of experience, cost, and administration. My limited resume of repository tools includes CVS, Source Safe, Intersolv (has their name changed again?), Perforce, and Rational Clear Case.

Only one has a deep black image in my mind: Source Safe. First, it was impossible to partially restore the database when a crash (a user started erasing the hard drive then stopped) occurred. Worse, the version we were using mangled file names such that we did not know what was left and what was lost. Second, users had unkowning corrupted "alternate" code trees through misuse of the user-friendly GUI. Chalk this up to training issues. But the fact that mangled names preventing a restore is what forever killed this product in my mind.

After that, I would say the decision boils down to cost and user training. I prefer and recommend CVS. It is free. But, I was lucky enough to have someone else install and administer it in my first experience. Admin and use is easy, but not spelled out for the first time user. Today I use the product on my home system. It is standard with only a command line interface, but other folks have decent gui interfaces for unix and windows platforms.

CVS features: no one LOCKS a file. This is the big thing. The entire product concept is that anyone can edit any file at any time. No one has to be on-line with a server to start an edit. Resolution where two people change the same file is fairly good. You can put the source on your laptop, go to Japan, edit, and come home with confidence that you can get your changes into the repository in a quick fashion.

Intersolve: my last experience was that it was "ok". It still required that someone "lock" a file. Now you could do this after the fact (like upon coming home from Japan with the edits), but it did not make any tests to see if you were giving edits based upon the most current source. A.K.A. you could easily overwrite (erase) someone elses changes. I almost killed Rainer the second time he did this to me ...

Perforce: expensive. It is supposed to be a "corporate" level tool. It is not. It will not handle multiple sites. You have one server, expensive per seat licenses, and usually a dedicated adminstrator.

Clearcase: really expensive, but does everything. Download the manual from Rational's site. I cannot do justice here.

pkzip: yeah, seriously. It has the option to let you continually add revisions of a file to the archive. One of those uncommon options. So a single zip file can keep all your revisions. Really cheap, really simple, but only works for a single user.

Perforce, Intersolve, and Rational do put forth the notion of software "states", e.g. development, alpha test, beta test, and ship. Each state can have a "promotion" to the next state. Big companies with heavy QA theory guys dig this. Simple setups, it gathers dust of unuse. Usefulness depends upon your corporate setting.

Give CVS a chance, but do not expect a cakewalk for multiple users (... it does support Windows and Unix users in the same repository for the same files, very progressive! ...)


amf
 
The main thing I missed in SourceSafe (or at least didn't find) was the possibility to create a tag on a group of files.

CVS have a possibility to mark a certain version of a group of files (a diretory, or even a diretory tree). It is then possible to check ot the files with a given tag. This is useful for marking the current version prior to each release, after that is is easy to get all files as they looked at each release, regardless of how the product is changed.

It is also useful for creating branches and so on (a branch is when you find a bug in one older version in the middle of a new product release-cycle, the current version is not stable enough to just fix the bug and ship. so you correct the bug in the old version and check it in as a branch not affecting the current version (you however could merge them if you like))

We try to avoid concurrent developement in the same files whenever that is possible (it is most of the time), but we have used it occasionally and it works well enough.

The fact that CVS is a command line tool is also something useful to us. We have created scripts that checkout the necesary files for a given version of a product (or series of products) and automatically generate the installation program(s). This was a tedious job before, it does not take much less time, but it is automated and can run overnight or as a background task. I have also made a script making a complete report about all changes affecting a product (and what files) since a certain release, this greatly improves estimating testing needs.

This are functions I value (apart from the obvious possibility to get any older version of any file and to compare any version of any file to another version)

Apart from that you would probably have to look at ease of use because it must be easy otherwise people just try to get around using it. CVS by itself is perhaps not easy enough to use for
some people but the gui mentioned below solves that part good enough as I see it.

I know there are other (more expensive) systems solving these issues too. I don't know much of them as I have never tried them.

/Johan Bengtsson

----------------------------------------
P&L, Innovation in training
Box 252, S-281 23 H{ssleholm SWEDEN
Tel: +46 451 49 460, Fax: +46 451 89 833
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet: http://www.pol.se/
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