Summary: SCCS vs. RCS
Lou Kates
louk at tslwat.UUCP
Fri Nov 9 03:48:29 AEST 1990
The following describes the relative advantages and disadvantages
of SCCS vs. RCS. The * indicates which of the two on each line is
preferable. In lines without a *, there is either no difference
or preference will depend on your particular needs and
circumstances.
Item SCCS RCS
custom header yes* no
change requests yes* no
make understands SCCS* does not understand RCS
setuid yes* no
user interface worse better*
symbolic tags no yes*
loc'n of revs current directory any directory*
rev history stored in SCCS can be copied to file on checkout*
speed retrieve old versions faster retrieve latest version faster
distribution binary from UNIX vendor source from Purdue or GNU
free front ends sccs CVS
usually used in System V BSD
The above list may change over time as SCCS and RCS are improved.
In particular, apparently, setuid on certain platforms and the
ability to retrieve older versions faster will be in the next or
future versions of RCS.
The disadvantages with either can often be overcome by using a
simple shell (possibly even just a csh or ksh alias) front end.
Several freely available front ends exist.
Perhaps one of the points in the table above is enough to make
you choose one of the two systems but my sense of the response
was that RCS and SCCS are sufficiently similar that you would
probably be guided by what was most available and familiar to
you which means SCCS on System V and RCS on BSD.
WHERE TO GET
RCS is available on arthur.cs.purdue.edu. If you have problems
contact rcs-bugs at cs.purdue.edu. An MS-DOS version is available on
wsmr-simtel20.army.mil in
PD1:<MSDOS.PGMUTL>DOSRCSEX.ZIP
PD1:<MSDOS.PGMUTL>DOSRCSMP.ZIP
PD1:<MSDOS.PGMUTL>MKSRCSEX.ZIP
On star.cs.vu.nl in pub/cvs is a shell script version of the CVS
front end for RCS by Dick Grune, Vrije Universiteit, de Boelelaan
1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam, the Netherlands, dick at cs.vu.nl.
On uunet.uu.net in ~ftp/comp.sources.unix/volume22/cvs-berliner
is a C version of CVS front end for RCS by Brian Berliner, Rocky
Mountain Technology Center, Sun Microsystems, 5465 Mark Dabling
Blvd., Colorado Springs, CO 80918, berliner at sun.com.
RCS and CVS may also be found on prep.ai.mit.edu although the
locations referred to above may have more recent versions.
A number of SCCS front ends have been posted to comp.sources.unix
and alt.sources.
REFERENCES
Marc J. Rochkind, "The Source Code Control System",
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol SE-1(4), 364-370, Dec 1975.
Walter F. Tichy, "RCS -- A System for Version Control",
Software--Practice and Experience, Vol 15(7), 637-654, Jul 1985.
THANKS
Thanks to the following for posting or sending me emails:
bad at atrain.sw.stratus.com (Bruce Dumes)
berliner at rmtc.Central.Sun.COM (Brian Berliner)
bhahn at bogus.sw.stratus.com (Bill Hahn)
cbmvax!hutch!purdom at uunet.UU.NET (purdom)
celit!billd at celerity.fps.com (Bill Davidson)
charles at phx.mcd.mot.com (Charles Wolff)
dick at cs.vu.nl (Dick Grune)
drz at csri.toronto.edu (Jerry Zarycky)
emv at math.lsa.umich.edu (Edward Vielmetti)
guy at auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
jmm at eci386.uucp (John Macdonald)
johnl at iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine)
leadsv!white at apple.com (Ben White)
mks!watmath!domain.com!mdv (Mike Verstegen)
rick at tetrauk.tetrauk (Rick Jones)
rob at b15.INGR.COM (Rob Lemley)
sdrc!scjones%thor at uunet.UU.NET (Larry Jones)
watmath!acf4.NYU.EDU!poppers (Michael Poppers)
watmath!servio.SLC.COM!penneyj (D. Jason Penney)
woods at eci386.uucp (Greg A. Woods)
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