This information is now obsolete and is retained online only for archival purposes.
The information contained in this summary is a consolidation of data obtained from a variety of sources around the Internet, but primarily from articles and comments posted on the comp.software.config-mgmt newsgroup. Additional information occasionally is emailed to the FAQ editor. Check the date above to see how recent the information you are reading might be.
This document, as a collection of information, is Copyright 1995-2002 by Dave Eaton. It may be freely redistributed unedited in its entirety provided that this copyright notice is not removed. It may not be sold for profit or incorporated in commercial documents without the written permission of the copyright holder. This article is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. The content is the sole responsibility of the author and contributors, and does not necessarily represent the position of their employers nor an official position or opinion of any company. Please contact the FAQ editor regarding changes.
Various products mentioned in this FAQ are the trademarks of their respective companies.
All parts of this FAQ are posted to this newsgroup on or about the 22nd of each month. (This is done manually and sometimes work interferes with this posting, please excuse any delays.)
Like most FAQ lists, these parts are archived at rtfm.mit.edu (and various other sites which archive FAQs.) The parts are named:
For those with World Wide Web access, hyperlinked HTML versions of these
documents are available via:
http://www.daveeaton.com/scm/
(If you type in this URL, remember that it is case sensitive.)
These are updated throughout the month as changes come in. A letter
is added to the version number and the date is changed with each edit
to help you determine if you've already seen it.
If you are not sure what we mean by CM (or SCM), please see our definition in question [1.2] of FAQ section 1. If you still think this will help you with your PC hardware or application configuration, you are mistaken. Please see question [1.10] of FAQ section 1 for some suggestions of other more appropriate newsgroups for your question -- do not post it to comp.software.config-mgmt. Thank you.
Similarly, this FAQ is intended for tools which address the configuration management needs of the software development process. This does not include hardware configuration tracking or software distribution.
This is not a definitive list of all available tools, nor is it intended to be. It is not a recommendation or endorsement of any of the tools mentioned. As noted above, it is a composit of opinions from the comp.software.config-mgmt newsgroup. If you have a tool you would like others to know about, please join the discussion.
Some tools have been mentioned in the newsgroup, but contact information (company name, address and phone or ftp location) as well as user comments are needed so they may be included in the report below. If you are a user of such a tool, please send a paragraph or two containing your comments and experiences as well as supplier contact information to the FAQ editor.
Instructions for adding or changing information in this FAQ may be found in section 1.8 of part 1, the general FAQ for the comp.software.config-mgmt newsgroup.
Commercial CM Products
Product Vendor Address Platforms
+1CM +1 Software Engineering Sun (SunOS and Solaris)
2510-G Las Posas Road,
Suite 438
P.O. Box 6041
Camarillo, CA 93011
tel.: 805-389-1778
info@plus-one.com
AccuRev/CM AccuRev Inc. Solaris, Compaq Alpha Unix,
10 Maguire Rd. HP-UX, IRIX, RS/6000,
Lexington, MA 02421 Linux, Windows
tel: 781-861-8700
fax: 781-861-8704
info@accurev.com
800-383-8170
Aldon/CMS Aldon Computer Group AS/400
1999 Harrison Street
Suite 1500
Oakland, CA 94612
tel.: 510-839-3535 (US)
+44.1932.355711 (UK)
info@aldon.com
AllChange Intasoft Ltd. PC (MS-WFW, MS Windows
Tresco House Win95/98, WinNT), Sun Solaris
Westpoint Court
Exeter EX5 1DJ UK
tel.: +44 (0) 1392-447780
FAX: +44 (0) 1392-447781
sales@intasoft.net
Andromede Jean-Francois Combes Many Unix platforms,
Eslog Linux, LynxOS, VMS
2 bis, BUROSPACE
91571 Bievres CEDEX Client avail. on MS Windows
France
Tel:00 33 1 69 85 51 51
eslog@club-internet.fr
CM Synergy Telelogic AB Tru64 Unix, HP-UX,
(World headquarters) IBM RS/6000, SGI, Siemens, Sun
PO Box 4128 PC (MS Windows, Win95/98,
Kungsgaten 6 SE-203 12 WinNT client, WinNT server)
Malmö, Sweden
tel: +46 (40) 174700
FAX: +46 (40) 174747
info@telelogic.com
US headquarters
Telelogic North America Inc.
9401 Jeronimo Road
Irvine, CA 92618 USA
Tel: +1-949-830-8022
Fax: +1-949-830-8023
Change and Configuration Computer Associates IBM RS/6000 AIX,
Control (CCC/Harvest) 1 Computer Associates Plaza HP-UX, Sun (SunOS and
Islandia, N.Y. 11788 Solaris), Digital UNIX,
tel.: 1-800-225-5224 PC (OS/2, Win, Win/NT)
1-516-342-5224
ClearCase IBM Corporation Digital Unix, HP-UX, RS/6000,
1 New Orchard Road SGI, Sun, PC (Red Hat Linux,
Armonk, New York 10504 Solaris, UnixWare, WinNT,
United States Win98)
tel.: 1-888-SHOP-IBM Attache provides client
1-800-IBM-4YOU functions for MS Windows.
Code Co-op Reliable Software PC (Win95, WinNT)
1011 Boren Ave
Suite 106
Seattle, WA 98104
tel.: 206-361-6679
Code Management System Digital Equipment Corp. DEC (OpenVMS/VAX,
(CMS) and Module DECdirect OpenVMS/alpha)
Management System (MMS) Continental Blvd.
Merrimack, NH 03054
tel.: 800-344-4825
Configuration Management IBM Corp. IBM RS/6000, Sun, HP-UX
Version Control (CMVC) 1133 Westchester Ave.
White Plains, NY 10604 Client only: PC (DOS,
tel.: 602-217-2025 OS/2, MS Windows)
CMVision and Expertware DEC (VMS, Ultrix, Unix),
Configuration Management 12901 Alcosta Blvd. Ste2A HP-UX, IBM RS/6000, PC
Facility (CMF) PO Box 1847 (SCO UNIX), Sun
San Ramon, CA 94583
tel.: 510-867-0315
CMWin Expertware, Inc.
130 Ryan Industrial Court
Suite 210
PO Box 1847
San Remon, CA 94583
Tel: 510-820-7020
510-867-0315
214-357-1485
FAX: 510-820-4123
CMZ CodeME s.a.r.l. PC (DOS), Win/NT
14, Rue de l'Eglise (on ALPHA/PC), DEC/Ultrix,
F-01630 St. Genis-Pouilly Digital Unix, VAX/VMS &
France Alpha/OPENVMS, Silicon
tel.: +33 50420914 Graphics IRIX, SUN (OS4 @amp;
FAX: +33 50 42 09 14 Solaris), HP9000/700 HPUX,
distributed via CERN: Apollo, IBM RS/6000 AIX, IBM
codeme@cernvm.cern.ch VM/CMS, MVS/TSO, MVS/NEWLIB,
CRAY XMP/YMP UNICOS,
NeXtStep, LINUX,
Alliant, Convex, Gould
CONTROL-CS Network Concepts, Inc. Server: Compaq (Tandem)
9 Mt. Pleasant Turnpike NSK, HP-UX, Linux, SCO,
Denville, NJ 07834-3612 SGI, Sun Solaris, MS WinNT
tel.: 973-285-0202
nci@nci-sw.com Client: PC (MS Win95/98,
WinNT)
Corporate RCS Thompson Automation HP-UX, Sun (Solaris),
Software PC (DOS, MS Windows, WFW
5616 SW Jefferson Win95, WinNT, OS/2)
Portland, OR 97221
tel: 800-944-0139
503-224-1639
FAX: 503-224-3230
Disciplined Software Saint Mavris Technology most major UNIXes,
Management 15 Wardell Dr Windows
Lucas Heights
Sydney, NSW 2234
Australia
tel: 61-0403206586
FAX: 61-295410840
info@mavris.com
DRTS ILSI Sun (SunOS), PC (DOS,
6235 E. Monte Carlo Ave MS Windows, Win95,
Scottsdale, AZ 85254 SCO UNIX)
tel.: 602-991-8281
FAX: 602-991-6324
ilsi@enet.net
Endevor Workstation Computer Associates
1 Computer Associates Plaza
Islandia, N.Y. 11788
1-800-225-5224
1-516-342-5224
ExcoConf Excosoft AB DEC OpenVMS, HP-UX,
Electrum 420 IBM AIX, Sun,
164 40 Kista
Sweden PC (MS Win3.1, Win95, NT)
tel.: +46 8 703 9190
FAX: +46 8 703 9490
info@excosoft.se
FtpVC Gregory Nisnevich PC (MS Win95, NT)
(FTP Version Control) gregnis@yahoo.com
Human-Oriented Aladdin Knowledge PC (MS Win95, NT)
Programming Environment Systems, Inc. (Sun Solaris in progress)
(HOPE)
tel.: 800-223-4277
tel.: 212-564-5678
FAX: 212-564-3377
hope.sales@us.aks.com
Software Manager Vertical Sky PC (MS-DOS, MS Windows,
2500 S Highland Ave Win/NT, OS/2, SCO UNIX),
Lombard IL 60148 Most UNIX's (H-P, IBM
RS/6000, Sun.
tel.: 1-800-633-1235 See writeup
or 1-630-495-2108 for others.)
FAX: 1-630-495-3591
sales@VerticalSky.com
NeumaCM+ Neuma Technology Inc.
1010 Polytek Unit 2 HP-UX, Solaris, AIX,
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada SGI, Linux, SCO SunOS,
K1J 9H8 OpenVMS, Win95, WinNT
tel.: 613-749-9450
FAX: 613-749-1416
support@neuma.com
Perforce Perforce Software 50+ including
2320 Blanding Ave most Unix vendors, plus
Alameda, CA 94501 FreeBSD and Linux),
tel: +1-510-864-7400 Windows/95, Windows/NT,
FAX: +1-510-864-5340 Macintosh, OS/2,
info@perforce.com VMS, BeOS,
IBM OS/390 Open Edition
Product Configuration Tesseract Technologies PC (DOS)
Management (PCM) (Pty) Ltd (Windows / Win95 in dev.)
P.O. Box 9
Irene 1675
South Africa
tel.:+27-12-997-2427
415-981-1800
FAX: +27-12-997-1082
tesseract@pixie.co.za
PVCS MERANT HP-UX, IBM AIX RS/6000,
701 East Middlefield Rd Sun Solaris, PC (SCO,
Mountain View, CA 94043 Win3.1, Win/NT, Win95)
tel.: 800-872-6265
FAX: 650-404-7217
Corporate Headquarters:
The Lawn
22-30 Old Bath Road
Newbury
Berkshire, England RG14 1QN
tel.: +1635 32646
FAX: +1635 33966
(PVCS) Synergex Linux, SCO UNIX, SCO
2330 Gold Meadow Way UnixWare, QNX, Apple
Gold River, CA 95670 Macintosh System 7.x, MIPS
tel.: 916-635-7300 ABI, DG AViiON, Digital
info@synergex.com UNIX, OpenVMS/AXP, NCR,
AlphaNT, SVR4 iAPX,
Sequent's Dynix/Ptx,
and Sun OS.
QEF QEF Advanced Software Inc. Digital VMS with Posix
Toronto and Kitchener, HP-UX, IBM AIX, MS WinNT,
Ontario, Canada Solaris, UnixWare, IRIX,
info@qef.com Linux, Lynx
PrimeCode Data Design Systems, Inc. Server: Tandem Himalaya
5915 Airport Blvd.
Suite 625 Clients: Unix,
Mississauga, ON L4V 1T1 PC (Win, Win95, Win/NT,
Canada OS/2)
tel.: 905-677-6666
FAX: 905-677-6671
sales@datadesign.com
Razor Visible Systems Sun (both Solaris and
248 Main Street SunOS), HP, SGI,
Oneida, NY 13421 RS/6000, Digital Unix
tel.: 315-363-8000 Linux, PC(Win95/98,
FAX: 315-363-7488 WinNT)
razor_sales@visible.com
Revision Control Engine DuraSoft, GmbH MS Win3.x, Win95, WinNT,
(RCE) Breslauerstr. 14 OS/2,
D-76139 Karlsruhe AIX, HP-UX, IRIX, Linux,
Germany SCO, SunOS, Solaris,
tel.: +49 721 968-4664 Digital Unix
FAX: +49 721 968-4665
marketing: DuraSoft@ira.uka.de
support: RCE@ira.uka.de
Software Configuration IBM Corp. A component of ISPF
Library Manager (SCLM) for IBM MVS mainframes
SABLIME Lucent Technologies (wide range of UNIX)
Group
10 Independence Blvd.
Room 3A-32
Warren, New Jersey 07059
tel.: 800-462-8146 or
908-580-6444
FAX: 908-580-6335
Europe: +45 43 42 13 42
Europe FAX: +45 43 42 23 42
Serena ChangeMan DS Serena Software Inc. HP/3000 (HP MPE/iX)
2755 Campus Drive, HP (HP-UX), HP NonStop,
3rd Floor IBM (AIX), Linux (Intel),
San Mateo, CA 94403 OS/390, OS/400, SCO UNIX,
tel.: 650-522-6600 SunOS/Solaris, AS400,
FAX: 650-522-6699 PC (MS Windows NT, Windows 2000)
info@serena.com
Serena Change Man ZMF Serena Software, Inc. IBM (MVS); Zos
2755 Campus Drive, interface available
3rd Floor
San Mateo, CA 94403
tel.: 650-522-6600
FAX: 650-522-6699
info@serena.com
SoftBench CM Hewlett-Packard HP-UX, Solaris
3404 E. Harmony Road
Fort Collins, CO 80525
tel.: 1-800-738-4447
Dept. A225
Source Code Manager UniPress Software Inc Unix: HP, IBM, Sun,
2025 Lincoln Hwy SGI, SCO, DEC, Unixware,
Edison, NJ 08817 Linux
scm@unipress.com
tel.: 908-287-2100
800-222-0550
FAX: 908-287-4929
SourceOffSite SourceGear Corporation PC (Win95/98, WinNT)
Professional Edition 3200 Farber Drive Other clients: Linux, Solaris
Champaign, IL 61822
tel.: 217-356-3213
support@sourceoffsite.com
StarTeam StarBase Corporation PC (Win95, WinNT),
4 Hutton Centre Dr. UNIX command line support
Suite 800
Santa Ana, CA 92707
USA
tel.: 714-445-4400
FAX: 714-445-4404
TeamConnection IBM Corp. UNIX and PC
1133 Westchester Ave.
White Plains, NY 10604
tel.: 602-217-2025
TeamSite Interwoven, Inc. Server: Windows NT,
1195 W. Fremont Ave.#2000 Sun Solaris
Sunnyvale, CA 94087 Client: Any System
tel.: 408-774-2000 with Web Browser
FAX: 408-774-2002 (NFS+SMB)
info@interwoven.com
SPARCworks/TeamWare SunSoft Sun (SunOS, Solaris 2)
ProWorks/TeamWare 2550 Garcia Ave. Intel (Solaris, UnixWare)
Mountain View, CA 94043 HP (Early Access in 1994)
tel.: 1-800-SUNSOFT (U.S.)
+1 415-336-6848
FAX: +1 415-968-6396
sunpro-info@sun.com
TLIB Burton Systems Software PC (DOS, Windows,
P.O.Box 4157 Win/NT, OS/2)
Cary, NC 27519-4157 USA
tel.: 1-919-233-8128
FAX: 1-919-233-0716
TRUEchange TRUE Software DEC (VAX/VMS, Digital
(formerly ADC/Pro) 300 Fifth Avenue UNIX), HP-UX, RS/6000 AIX,
Waltham, MA 02154 Siemens/Pyramid, SGI UNIX,
tel.: 781-890-4450 Sun (SunOS, Solaris,
FAX: 781-890-4452 Solaris x86), Sequent
info@truesoft.com DYNIX, IBM MVS,
PC (MS Win95, Win/NT)
Turnover SoftLanding Systems AS/400
84 Elm Street
Peterborough, NH 03458
tel.: +1-603-924-8818
1-800-545-9485
FAX: +1-603-924-8508
webmaster@softlanding.com
Visual Enabler Softlab Clients: PC (Win95, WinNT)
1000 Abernathy Rd, Servers: WinNT
Suite 1000 (AIX, HP-UX, Digital UNIX
Atlanta, GA 30328 planned 4Q97)
tel.: +1 770 668 8811
FAX: +1 770 668 8712
Info@SoftlabNA.com
Visual SourceSafe Microsoft Corp. PC (MS-DOS, MS Windows,
One Microsoft Way Win/NT: Intel, Alpha, MIPS),
Redmond, WA 98052-6399
tel.: 800-426-9400
FAX: 206-635-6100
Mainsoft UNIX (AIX, HP-UX,
1270 Oakmead Parkway, SPARC Solaris,
Suite 310 SGI MIPS)
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
tel.: 800-MAIN WIN (USA)
tel.: 408-774-3400
FAX: 408-774-3404
Metrowerks Corporation Macintosh
9801 Metric Boulevard
Austin TX 78758
tel.: 512-873-4700
FAX: 512-873-4901
sales@metrowerks.com
Versions Of Outdated UNI Software Plus Macintosh
Documents Organized Softwarepark Hagenberg
Orthogonally (Voodoo) A-4232 Hagenberg
AUSTRIA (Europe)
FAX: +43 (7236) 37 69
voodoo@unisoft.co.at
As with products in many markets, some CM Tools and vendors come in and
some leave. The following list contains information for products which
may be still in use, but for which newsgroup contributors were unable to
locate current market contacts or for which the vendors had advised the
tool was obsolete. They are listed here to help anwser questions such as
"Heard about tool XYZ?" (If any tools are erroneously listed here, please
accept my apologies and inform the FAQ editor so it may be corrected.)
Commercial CM Products
Product Vendor Address Platforms
Adele Verilog SA HP-UX, Sun
150 Rue Nicolas Vauqelin
BP 1310, 31106
Toulouse Cedex, France (No longer marketed)
Domain Software Hewlett-Packard Co. Apollo
Engineering Environment 300 Apollo Drive
(DSEE) Chelmsford, MA 01824
tel.:
1-800-637-7740 (US)
1-800-387-3867 (Canada) (No longer marketed)
MS Delta Microsoft (Retired and replaced
by Visual SourceSafe)
SMS Intasoft (withdrawn, see AllChange)
There are a number of tools generally available at no charge - some are delivered with most UNIX systems (so yes, you may pay for them, but the price is bundled with what you pay your vendor already), others need to be transferred from an archive site on the Internet using a tool such as FTP. In some cases they will need to be compiled at your site. Most come bundled with adequate documentation. Since many of these tools are provided without support, it may not be advisable to use them on some projects. For completeness, they have been listed here despite that potential drawback. Those tools with World Wide Web sites are listed in section 8, CM Tools With World Wide Web Sites at the end of this document. (The Web site may provide more specific product information than can be made available in this FAQ.)
The /BriefCase 3 Toolkit expands the basic capabilities of the Revision
Control System (RCS) commands to manage software system component revisions
throughout their development, release and maintenance life-cycles.
It runs on most Unix/Linux systems with the generally available
versions of the Korn Shell and awk.
Available since 1992 from Applied Computer Sciences, inc., /Briefcase
source is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Contact them at P.O.Box 8003; Cave Creek, AZ 85327;
(voice) 623-465-8865, (fax) 623-465-1078 or
email: briefcase@applied-cs-inc.com
or visit
http://www.applied-cs-inc.com/bcintro.html
on the Web for additional information.
While not a CM tool in itself, Emacs 19 includes a mode called VC that increases the leverage available from RCS, SCCS, or CVS, and decreases the hassles of using those CM tools. VC automatically detects which version control system is being used and auto-configures for it. (Systems can be mixed and it will do the right thing). It hides the details of registration, checkin, checkout and lock-stealing behind a simple one-command "do the next logical thing" interface -- users never leave Emacs. VC also includes functions for viewing version diffs and change histories, making and retrieving named release snapshots, and generating version-difference patches. It even supports a modified Dired mode that allows you to do "batch" version-control operations on groups of files (for example, it becomes trivial to check in changes to 23 different files with the same change comment).
Additional information may be obtained by invoking Emacs 19 and typing `M-x info RETURN m emacs RETURN m vc RETURN'.
Aegis is a project change supervisor distributed under the GNU public license. It was written by Peter Miller (millerp@canb.auug.org.au or peterm@lucent.com). Reportedly it is a developer's tool, not a manager's tool. It does not provide progress tracking or manage work allocation. Aegis 2.2 copes with heterogenous environments.
While CVS (described elsewhere in this report) provides a repository; aegis provides a repository, a baseline, mandatory reviews and mandatory testing. Aegis may be configured to use almost any history tool (such as RCS) and almost any dependency maintenance tool (such as make), although traditional make may not be sufficiently capable.
The most significant point of departure between CVS and Aegis is around the "checkin" function. Although CVS does have the ability to run a script which allow or disallows a checkin before it occurs, Aegis breaks this step into several pieces: the change must be known to build, the change must have tests and those tests be known to have run and passed, the change must then be reviewed (double check), and then built and tested again (triple check).
The latest information and version of Aegis is available by HTTP from http://www.canb.auug.org.au/~millerp/. Reference material, the complete sourse, and its own FAQ are available.
BCS stands for Baseline Configuration System. It was written by Jay Berkenbilt (ejb@ql.org) and runs on UNIX only. Like CVS, BCS attempts to add concurrency to an existing version control system, but it does so with a different approach. The primary function of BCS is to maintain a stable "baseline" controlled under RCS or SCCS and multiple "staging areas" that are mirrors of the baseline (implemented as symbolic link trees).
BCS is no longer being actively enhanced or maintained. The last released version was 2.0.2. Version 3.0 alpha 6, from late 1995, is a stable snapshot version that implements some of the changes specified for version 3.0. No further releases are expected. Please email the author (ejb@ql.org) for further information.
CVS is available for download from ftp://ftp.cvshome.org/pub/. A user WWW site is available at http://www.loria.fr/~molli/cvs-index.html
Information about tkcvs, a Tk based graphical interface to CVS, may be found at: http://www.twobarleycorns.net/tkcvs.html. Information about a Web interface to CVS may be found at: http://stud.fh-heilbronn.de/~zeller/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/.
Cervisia is a KDE graphical frontend for the the CVS client. It features checking out a module from a repository; updating or retrieving the status of a working directory or single files; common operations like add, remove and commit; diff against the repository and between different revisions; annotated view of a file; view of the log messages in tree and list form; and resolving of conflicts in a file. A changelog editor is integrated with commiting files. Cervisia may be found at http://cervisia.sourceforge.net/.
WinCVS is a GUI front end for CVS. Versions are available (under the terms of the GPL) for several platforms, including Windows and Mac. More information may be found at http://www.wincvs.org/.
The Chrooted SSH CVS server HOW-TO, which describes the steps necessary to setup a very network-secure CVS server, allowing SSH access to chrooted CVS repositories may be found at http://www.idealx.org/prj/idx-chrooted-ssh-cvs/dist/chrooted-ssh-cvs-server.html.
An test release of GNU CSSC version 0.09 is available. This is still an alpha edition (i.e., not a final release). CSSC is, of course, covered by the GNU General Public License.
CSSC may be found in the file (about 375K long, compressed) ftp://alpha.gnu.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/CSSC/CSSC-0.09alpha.pl0.tar.gz
GNU CSSC is a workalike for the traditional SCCS suite. If you didn't already know what SCCS is, please use RCS instead of trying CSSC. This software is not reccomended for new projects, but is a faithful reproduction of SCCS, though some features may not be available yet.
The principal aim for the prerelease is to get CSSC tested on as many platforms as possible, and to obtain new test suites so that more extensive testing can be done.
Documentation is provided, but is very incomplete, and if you need much documentation you should be using RCS or CVS instead.
Comments about the CSSC package should be directed to jay@gnu.ai.mit.edu. CSSC was originally based on the public domain package MySC, which was written by Ross Ridge.
Users have reported problems with crashes in the GUI and some "serious problems" with the command line. It mapped filenames in the usual 8.3 PC NFS manner, even if the source file and archive files were on the same Windows 95 disk, and it didn't do that mapping consistantly, causing the user to be unable to check in two files with similar names or to out a file which had been checked in because it mapped the name differently. Although it is still available, ICE is no longer maintained.
PRCS was designed primarily by Professor P. N. Hilfinger, with input and modifications by Luigi Semenzato and Josh MacDonald. PRCS is written and maintained by Josh MacDonald.
Its purpose is similar to that of SCCS, RCS, and CVS, but (according to its authors, at least), it is much simpler than any of those systems.
PRCS downloads as well as documentation and recent developments are available online at http://prcs.sourceforge.net/.
PRCS is released under the GNU public license.
RCS still requires scripts to make life easier on the developer. Originally created by Walter Tichy, RCS is still maintained by Purdue (email to rcs-bugs@cs.purdue.edu). It is available on the GNU distribution, has been widely ported, and is free.
RCS is available via anonymous FTP from ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/rcs/ and its mirror sites. Specific ports have been found at:
site filename
wuarchive.wustl.edu systems/amiga/aminet/dev/misc/HWGRCS* (Amiga port)
systems/atari/umich.edu/Programming/rcs* (Atari port)
DOS and NT versions have been available at
http://www.winsite.com/.
RCS works best with GNU diffutils 2.7; look for diffutils-2.7.tar.Z. Many CASE tools interface with RCS.
The FSF offers a book (108 pgs.) and CD-ROM containing the DJGPP port of GCC and many GNU utilities, including Diffutils and RCS. More information can be found at: http://www.gnu.org/order/windows.html.
ShapeTools is available from ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/plan/shape/
In addition, gatekeeper has a mail archive server; send a message to ftpmail@gatekeeper.dec.com whose body contains the single line "help". A user WWW site is available at http://swt.cs.tu-berlin.de/~shape/index.html
The Subversion project (available under an Apache/BSD-style open source license) is intended as a replacement for CVS in the open source community. In addition to including all current CVS features, it provides versioning of directories, file renames, and file meta-data and it supports symbolic lynks. Commits are atomic; revision numbers are per-commit, not per-file. For more information, see their Web site at: http://subversion.tigris.org/. The on-line book may be found at: http://svnbook.red-bean.com/.
While these are not "CM" tools in the general sense, the make or build function is an intimate part of the overall CM process. Some commercial CM tools include their own make or build capability. There are also stand-alone commercial build tools available, but those are beyond the scope of this FAQ. The tools listed here all have source which is freely available and these tools have been mentioned in articles posted on this newsgroup. Please follow the pointers to the specific tool information.
Ant is a Java based build tool which is different from other "make" type tools. Ant is extended using Java classes rather than shell commands. Instead of writing shell commands and the configuration files are XML based calling out a target tree where various tasks get executed rather than Makefiles. For more information, see the Web site at http://jakarta.apache.org/ant/.
Bake is an intelligent Open Source build tool for developers. Its features include: "automagic dependency information gathering" and it is released under the WERKEN PUBLIC LICENSE (WPL), an Open Source license. Additional information may be found at http://bake.werken.com/.
Rule Based Command Execution: http://bras.berlios.de/ It is written in Tcl, so no compilation is required. Its rules include a Tcl-syntax so that commands associated with rules may contain control structures.
This toolset manages references between baseline builds when compiling large software projects that consist of multiple smaller projects. It is listed with other utilities at: http://www.sander.cupertino.ca.us/source.html
A software construction system: http://www.dsmit.com/cons/ CONS is a Perl5-based replacement for MAKE, though it is not compatible with make. Reportedly, it has a number of capabilities not found in other software construction systems, including make. CONS supports building on both UNIX operating systems and Windows NT. CONS is distributed under a license similar to the BSD license. An FAQ is available at http://www.baldmt.com/cons-faq/
A software build tool: http://www.canb.auug.org.au/~millerp/cook.html Cook is a tool for constructing files. It is given a set of files to create, and recipes of how to create them. The source distribution is self configuring using a GNU Autoconf generated configure script.
Make(1) Redux: http://www.perforce.com/jam/jam.html Jam/MR is a make(1) replacement that makes building simple things simple and building complicated things manageable. The Jam/MR source code is freely available from Perforce Software, and comes with no warranty, guarantee, or user support.
Not a CM tool, but according to author Geoffrey Clemm, Odin is a simpler, more reliable, and more powerful replacement for Make. It is designed to combine the simplicity and elegance of the original Make program with the power of the latest super-Makes. Some of Odin's features include:
SCons is a software construction tool (build tool, or alternative to Make) implemented in Python, based on the winning design in the Software Carpentry build tool competition (in turn based on the Cons build tool). A web site is available at: http://www.scons.org/.
Contact information such as address and phone number may be found in section 4, Commercial Vendor Contact List, of this document. Those products with World Wide Web sites are listed in section 8, CM Tools With World Wide Web Sites at the end of this document. (The Web site may provide more specific product information than can be made available in this FAQ.)
Users have reported that installation was simple and the features were useful and robust. Particularly liked was its implicit branching. AccuRev provides good support wih rapid turn-around on questions.
A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.accurev.com
CCC/Harvest is Computer Associates' (formerly Platinum Technology) CM solution specifically designed for cross-platform, client/server software development environments. CCC/Harvest utilizes commercially available RDBMSs, integrated problem tracking, an API and GUI to provide process management, visibility and control over the entire development life cycle. CCC/Harvest also provides robust CM features that automate version control, change packaging, staging, concurrent and parallel development, multiple releases, emergency maintenance and software customization. A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.cai.com/products/ccm/
CCC/Manager is a CM tool for homogeneous development environments that automates the management of version control, change packaging, staging, concurrent and parallel development, multiple releases, emergency maintenance and software customization. CCC/Manager is available for Windows, OS/2, Windows NT, Sun-4/SPARCstation, HP9000, DEC RISC/ULTRIX, IBM RS/6000, Silicon Graphics and SCO. CCC/Life Cycle Manager provides CM for IBM/MVS systems, including component and application management, application merging, parallel development and vendor code maintenance.
CCC QuikTrak is a powerful, automated change and version management tool for Excel spreadsheet users that keeps track of multiple spreadsheet versions and allows users to quickly compare versions and identify the impact of their changes. It also conserves disk space by saving only the changes made to spreadsheets instead of a duplicate of the entire file. CCC QuikTrak appears directly within Excel as an additional menu in the menu bar.
In addition to version control and CM functions, advanced capabilities include 32-way merge, versioning of any object (including directories), logical version labeling, parallel builds distributed over a network, and triggers for local site customizing. Versioned history files may be compressed for space savings. The checkout mechanism gives the appearance of leaving the file in place, so the ClearCase source library is often used as a current working directory. Although traditional make files may be used, simpler syntax and enhanced tracking functions are available with clearmake. An automated conversion utility aids migration from other CM tools. The unique DSEE conversion utility preserves all DSEE versions, dates and reasons of changes, indications of merges, and version labels in the new database.
The ClearCase MultiSite(TM) option provides support for parallel development and software reuse across geographically distributed project teams, even without a network connection. ClearDDTS provides integrated problem management and the ClearGuide option provides software process management functions to round out the tool offering.
Tools automating a complex process are always a bit tricky to learn or configure and user comments confirm that is the case at many ClearCase sites. However, this quote from a satisfied user seems to echo the feelings of many who find ClearCase a necessity at their locations: "If you could measure the true cost of producing software (and not just the cost of the tools used), you will find that ClearCase is a bargain."
A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.ibm.com/software/rational/
Network Concepts began offering an SCM tool called CONTROL to the Tandem (now Compaq) computer market place in 1982. It now also offers a client-server product, CONTROL-CS. The client runs under several PC operating systems. Servers are availabile for Compaq NSK, WinNT, and UNIX platforms. A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.nci-sw.com/
Corporate RCS by Thompson Automation Software manages software versions over mutliple platforms. A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.tasoft.com/
Disciplined Software Management by Saint Mavris Technology is a client/server system. It contains three functional areas: Software Development for version control, make and build; Software Management for software distribution and releasing; Discipline 4GL, is a 4GL used for implementing the user interface, screens, and commands. The entire functionality of Discipline consists of server transactions which can be invoked locally or remotely by a Discipline 4GL program. This architecture allows it to be tailored to the exact user requirements and methodology. A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.mavris.com/
A company representative stressed that it is extremely easy to try out their product. Both documentation and a full copy of the product for evaluation are available by FTP. New releases and patches are handled in the same manner.
Byte Differencing Engine (BDE) is a new API for difference encoding now available from DuraSoft. The API is taken from the core of RCE. Like RCE, BDE can work with any kind of data.
User comments have not been received at this time. Please contact the FAQ editor if you have used this product and can comment.
StarTeam has a good combination of both version-control and integrated bug-tracking, plus some nice features such as threated messaging, internet client-server, and a web client interface option. It supports a visual merge within the tool. Unlike some of the other middle-market priced tools, it runs as a server and client on Windows NT, not requiring a UNIX server. For best performance, users have reported that the archives should reside on the same machine which is running the StarTeam service.
Version 4.1 added a new IDE and database support. StarTeam interoperates with both Visual SourceSafe and PVCS archives. Other features added with version 4 include MS Project 98 integration for project planning a well as COM and Java class interfaces for client use over the Internet from non-Windows operating systems.
Some users have reported data losses, particularly in multi-processor installations where all "service packs" have not been installed. (StarBase has reported that this problem was traced to Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 failure. If StarTeam process was run on a separate system this problem did not occur.) StarBase's tech support line has received praise from several users.
A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.starbase.com.
SPARCworks/TeamWare is not based on a proprietary file system. Instead, it relies on standard UNIX utilities and services like SCCS and NFS. Development teams that are already using SCCS can quickly adopt SPARCworks/TeamWare--even continue to use their SCCS wrappers. It has no special networking or administrative requirements, and gives users the ability to customize according to their own development methodologies. There is both an intuitive graphical user interface and command line access, controls for workspace access and notification, and easy manipulation of workspace directories for changing project needs and multiple releases.
A free "Try and Buy" 30-day software evaluation kit is available.
A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.truesoft.com/
It has a very nice model for setting up multiple versions of a project. The key commands are the share, branch, merge, links, and paths commands. Rather than using numbers to branch, such as version 2.3.6.1 in SCCS, a logical release or customer name can be used to implement the same construct. SourceSafe also runs on many platforms so it can be used for a client/server project where coding is being done on a Windows PC using Visual Basic, and on a UNIX workstation using C. It is competitively priced and easy to install and configure. The Microsoft System Journal (May, 1993) named SourceSafe as the best Windows based configuration mangement tool. The SourceSafe label command can be used to take a snapshot of the entire project, assign that version a name. The operation is rapid, even if there are 2000 programs in the project. SourceSafe integrates with VisualStudio which automates checkin/checkout of code as developers work with files. Several mid and high end defect-tracking tools integrate with SourceSafe.
It has been reported that a user can access several projects at one time in SourceSafe, but that SourceSafe security is not very elaborate; it only has 4 levels of security: read-only, checkout, add, and destroy. This may be sufficient for some projects, but not for others. SourceSafe does not deal with project building (interfacing with Makefiles and compiling, for example). It also does not interface with a problem tracking tool, although that may be in the works. There have been numerous reports posted on the newsgroup of corrupted SourceSafe data repositories, particularly with large repositories or when the disk containing it begins to become full.
A supplier WWW site is available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/ssafe/
MainSoft Visual SourceSafe for UNIX
SourceSafe was originally written for the PC. Mainsoft used their product MainWin in concert with the Microsoft Visual SourceSafe code to produce a UNIX version of the familiar Microsoft product. This product includes a Win95-style GUI. Databases can be shared between UNIX and MS Windows platforms by using Samba. Visual SourceSafe allows project level (as opposed to file level) maintenance of software source code, testing scripts and project documents. Version 5.0 includes extensive functionality to assist web developers such as routines to test hypertext links and to upload files to live web sites. Further information on the product can be obtained either from Mainsoft Corporation (http://www.mainsoft.com) or from the European distributor OpenGate Software (http://www.opengate.co.uk/opengate/).
Metrowerks Visual SourceSafe for Macintosh
Metrowerks produces the Macintosh version of Visual SourceSafe. It is fully compatible with Microsoft's Windows-based Visual Source Safe. Additional information is available at http://www.metrowerks.com.
Voodoo allows both variant and revision control, and it manages not only variants and revisions of single files, but of a whole software project (multi files, multi users, multi variants, access rights, ...). The tool offers a graphical user interface.
A lite version of Voodoo is being distributed on a low cost shareware basis. The current version is available from the vendor's ftp-server at:
ftp.swe.uni-linz.ac.at in /pub/voodooThe full (commercial) version of Voodoo is being distributed world-wide by UNI Software Plus.
A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.unisoft.co.at/products/voodooserver.html
DateWise FileCompare is a patented (No. 6,236,993) file comparison system that is able to compare files with expected differences without providing detailed file specifications. For example, many compilers and linkers embed several timestamps in their binary output (e.g. Microsoft VC++). Every manufacturer of compilers and linkers place the timestamps at different locations within the files, vary formats, etc., making it impractical to try to write a comparison function for a specific file type. Those timestamps have a side effect of prohibiting CM personnel from independently verifying that modules that the programmer states have not been changed are identical to versions supplied with the last release. DateWise FileCompare will compare the files, telling the user whether they match or not (excluding any expected embedded timestamp differences) and in what value range it found in the timestamps or where the unreconcilable differences were within the file. Another example of CM usage is verifying that compiler switches have not inadvertently been changed when upgrading to a new development machine.
Technical/application info may be found at http://www.datewise.com/mt. DateWise FileCompare is available as a utility for DOS/Windows, Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, and MVS platforms from:
DateWise, Ltd
3192 Ebonywood Ct
Dublin, OH 43017
Email: info@datewise.com
Tel/FAX: 614-799-2521.
Merge Right is available from:
Prescient Software, Inc.
3494 Yuba Avenue; San Jose, CA 95117-2967;
Email: mcgregor@netcom.com
tel: 408-985-1824; fax: 408-985-1936
Some examples of such tools are:
If you are aware of other WWW Servers which should be added to this list (or any which should be retired), please notify the FAQ editor.
--------------- End Of comp.software.config-mgmt FAQ Part 2-------------
(This message does not represent an official position of any company.)
-- Dave Eaton Former FAQ editor OBSOLETE! (Retained online for archive purposes only.)