Glossary
- baseline
An approved revision of a file from which subsequent changes can be made.
- branch
A set of files under version control may be branched (forked) at a point in time. From that time forward, the two copies of the files may develop in different ways, independently of each other.
- change
A change (or diff, or delta) represents a specific modification to a file under version control.
- changeset
A collection of files that have changes.
- checkout
See ‘clone’.
- clone
To clone is to create a local working copy from the repository. A user may specify a revision or obtain the latest. In centralised version control systems (with a single central repository), the term ‘checkout’ is also used. The term ‘checkout’ can be used as a noun to describe the working copy.
- commit
To commit is to write or merge the changes made in the working copy back to the repository. The terms ‘commit’ and ‘checkin’ can also be used as nouns to describe the revision that is created as a result of committing.
- conflict
A conflict occurs when different parties make changes to the same file, and the system is unable to reconcile the changes.
A user must resolve the conflict by combining the changes, or by selecting one change in favour of the other.
- fork
See ‘branch’.
- Grammar
An ontology is a set of statements in the logical form:
subjectpredicateobjectwheresubjectandobjectare facet terms.- head
The most recent revision, either to the trunk or to a branch.
The trunk and each branch have their own head. HEAD is sometimes used to refer to the head of the trunk.
- merge
A merge is an operation in which two sets of changes are applied to a file or set of files under version control.
A user updates their working copy with changes made to the repository by other users.
A user tries to update a repository with changes made to a working copy.
- repository
The repository is where the files’ current and historical data are stored, often on a server.
- resolve
The act of user intervention to address a conflict between different changes to the same file.
- revision
A revision (version) is any registered “snapshot” in time of the repository.
- sync
See ‘update’.
- trunk
The trunk is the “main” line of development to the collection of information under version control, consisting only of ‘baseline’ (approved) files.
- update
An update (or sync) merges changes made in the original repository (by other users, for example) into the local working copy.
- version
See ‘revision’.
- working copy
A working copy is a local copy of files from a repository, made at a specific time (revision).