Java Reference
In-Depth Information
Depending on your version control software, only one developer at a time may be
allowed to work on any particular file. Either way, your version control system
makes sure that no developer can accidentally overwrite changes made by
another developer. When developers are done with their changes, they commit
them to the repository, and the version control system increments the version
number of that file. If they decide they don't want to keep the changes, they can
throw them away.
The centralized management and historical record keeping offered by a ver-
sion control system let you tinker with a working program without fear of doing
irreparable harm to it. Even if you commit a change that you later regret, you can
always back out the change by rolling back to a previous revision level. When
you're working with a team of developers, a version control system provides a
safety net to ensure that no changes are lost as changes come, builds are made,
and software is released. A version control system is an essential ingredient in
managing a successful project of any complexity.
8.1.2
Enabling version control support in IDEA
Aside from a few global values, version control is configured on a project-by-
project basis, allowing you to specify different settings for each project or to turn
off version control on projects where it isn't required. This means you can use
SourceSafe for one project and
CVS
for another. By default, new projects have
version control support disabled unless you've changed your default project
properties. To enable it, bring up the
Settings
dialog and select the
Ve r s i o n C o n -
trol
option. In this panel, you can specify the type of version control system
you're using for the current project and configure its options, as shown for
CVS
in
figure 8.1. Using the
Te m p l a t e Pro j e c t
settings described in chapter 4, you can
configure a default set of version control system options for all new projects.
IDEA
5.0 can now handle situations in which one of your project's modules uses a
different type of version control system than the project itself. Under the project's
Paths
settings, select the module in question and then its
Version Control
tab.
Here you can use the project's version control settings (the default) or specify one
of the other version control systems supported by
IDEA
.
Although the interfaces shown in this chapter may look slightly different in
IDEA
5.0, the general functionality is the same.
