Software configuration management in software engineering. Configuration control is the activity of managing the product or projects deliverables and related documents, throughout the lifecycle of the product. Source control management best practices intland software. Software configuration management scm is a set of processes, policies, and tools that organizes the development process.
If something goes wrong, scm can determine what was changed and who changed it. Scm covers many different areas, but in this article im going to talk about how to structure team foundation server tfs version control to give you. Scm is the process of identifying and defining the items in the system, controlling the. This is superseded by the gnu cssc version control software. Revision control, also known as version control or source control and an aspect of software configuration management or scm, is the management of changes to documents, programs, and other information stored as computer files. In software engineering, software configuration management scm or sw cm is the task of tracking and controlling changes in the software, part of the larger crossdisciplinary field of configuration management. Jul 01, 2014 software configuration management scm is a software engineering discipline consisting of standard processes and techniques often used by organizations to manage the changes introduced to its software products. Configuration management software is designed to automate the deployment of applications in the data center and in the cloud. If something goes wrong, scm can determine what was. This chapter summarises the principles of software configuration management described in esa pss050 and then discusses the application of these principles first to documents and then to code. Team foundation is a group of tools and technologies that enable.
Setting up a software configuration management scm configuration file. Configuration management software is one of a constellation of devops categories designed to facilitate cooperation between it and development. In this format, each repository object, such as a connection pool, physical table, or business model, is represented in its own xml file. The version control software also known variously as source code management, source configuration management system, or simply scm not only provides you savings in storage space, it also helps you to track down earlier versions of your code should you, say, inadvertantly introduce a code change that you regret later. Puppet is an open source configuration management tool. It is an open source software configuration management tool.
Configuration management meets with the team to discuss the impact of changes and to. Cm mitigates risk at the predevelopment stage of the sdlc. Beyond tools such as git, mercurial and subversion, scm is also a set of best practices that can include the concept of a change lifecycle and a change request system somewhat confusingly, the abbreviation scm doesnt just stand for source control management, but also for several other closely related. Configuration management meets with the team to discuss the impact of changes and to think through potential problems. What is the difference between configuration management. For example, an organisation building public service websites would not build a software configuration management system for itself, this is a commodity capability that is best served by wellestablished tools such as the open source git. It simultaneously maintains the current state of the software called the baseline, while enabling developers to work on new versions for features or fixes. Integrating with source control, configuration management. Jan 25, 2018 software configuration management scm is a set of processes, policies, and tools that organizes the development process. About software configuration management with subversion. Configuration management and version control automation.
Cm is a support and control layer for the sdlc providing the following services to the team during a project. The figure here depicts this level of traceability from both a top down and a bottom up view. Integrating with source control, configuration management and other applications. Identification of configuration items like source code modules, test case, and. This includes version control, application lifecycle management, agile planning, and static analysis. In theory, it is kind of like make, without makes wrinkles and with the full portability of. Jul 29, 2017 configuration control and change control are often used interchangeably. The list of the most popular software configuration management tools top scm tools in 2020 in software engineering software configuration management is the task of tracking and controlling changes in the software part of the larger disciplinary field of configuration management the scm practices include vision controls in the establishment of baselines. Most cvs users can start using subversion without difficulty. An effective configuration control system ensures that. Perforce software provides enterprisescale development tools. Top 5 best version control software source code management. Some version control systems are also software configuration management scm systems. Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency.
The software configuration management process identifies the functional and physical attributes of software at critical points in time, and implements procedures to control changes to an identified attribute with the objective of maintaining software integrity and. As you work with modules managed in source control, differences arise between the local and remote copies of the modules. For example, theres your production code, which is the code that everyone is actually using. Git is the distributed source control management scm system originally written by linus torvalds and used for the linux kernel. Git is a free and open source tool which helps version control. As software configuration management tools are version control and textual friendly we can make. Using a source control management system for repository. Configuration management and version control automation world.
In theory, it is kind of like make, without makes wrinkles and with the full portability of pure java code. While we need to codify our automation in scripts, if we dont. Configuration control and change control similar yet. Configuration management is important because it allows us to scale infrastructure and software without having to scale staff to manage our.
By using tools to codify our build process, we make it easy for other developers to understand how our artifacts are modified and created, which is a form of configuration management. Scm helps in identifying individual elements and configurations, tracking changes, and version selection, control, and baselining. Changes are usually identified by a number or letter code. Most people in the software development industry refer to the source code management alone as configuration management. Introduction to version control and configuration management philip johnson collaborative software development laboratory information. This is for good reason, since it has a great feature set. Source control management scm is more than just a collaboration tool for developers. Both are related activities in the sense that they are concerned with management of change. Usually, this is the result of an unstructured software configuration management scm practice. Software configuration management is a process to systematically manage. Source control management best practices source control management scm is more than just a collaboration tool for developers.
Beyond tools such as git, mercurial and subversion, scm is also a set of best practices that can include the concept of a change lifecycle and a change request system. Git is a source code management scm system not software. Configurations are pulled from the master by the nodes. It is most commonly used in software development, where a team of people may change the same files. Cvs open source version control concurrent versions system. The version control system is software that allows you to create versions of elements and work with these versions, as with independent elements. Both are subsets of the overall configuration management system.
This is where instead of just saving your code to your desktop where you might lose it, or at least forget what it looked like yesterday before you decided to refactor everything and break everythin. If a configuration is working well, scm can determine how to replicate it across many hosts. To keep the artifacts in the local working copy and remote source control system in accordance with one another, the local workspace should be synchronized with the remote software configuration management system scm. In my role as an accurev systems engineer, i have the welcome opportunity to visit many companies looking to find a better software configuration management scm tool, as well as many companies who have already achieved that goal by choosing accurev. Configuration management tools and version control systems. In software engineering, software configuration management is the task of tracking and controlling changes in the software, part of the larger crossdisciplinary field of configuration management. Posts about source code control written by david thomas, accurev, jsherwood, and jtalbott. Role of configuration management in devops pluralsight. Without scm, source code would become so fragmented and. It is used for deploying, configuring and managing servers. In addition, your software is likely to be in a couple of different states at any given point in time. For software, the basics of cm are the same, but there are some added goodies.
Changes are usually identified by a number or letter code, termed the revision number, revision level, or. What is software configuration management and why do you. Sep 12, 2019 by using tools to codify our build process, we make it easy for other developers to understand how our artifacts are modified and created, which is a form of configuration management. Cvs is a production quality system in wide use around the world, including many free software projects.
Free source code version control software revision control. Software configuration management systems are commonly used in software development groups in which several developers are concurrently working on a common set of files. I run into various degrees of sophistication, from those that were previously versioning their source by creating. Instead of manually scanning branches of code and associated notes, version control allows for a central repository that is organized, logical, and. Using it, you can record the history of sources files, and documents. In the software development world, git is currently the most popular version control system. Cvs is a version control system, an important component of source configuration management scm. Comments on open source software free software ossfs.
Version control is necessary but not sufficient for configuration. With this feature, the user can take their choice of version for their work. Source code control can include anything from the storage and organization of folders and files on disk, to sophisticated tools for revision control and distribution of resources amongst a large team. Scm practices include revision control and the establishment of baselines. Left unchecked, these continuous software changes lead to a degradation in performance and quality. Projects on this site can use the software configuration management scm tool for version control. Introduction to software engineeringtoolssource control. One of the things that frightens anyone who develops code the most, or more accurately the people who are responsible for releasing or deploying that code, is the possibility that you might not have access to it within your software configuration management tool or version control system when you need it. A component of software configuration management, version control, also known as revision control or source control, is the management of changes to. The software configuration management process identifies the functional and physical attributes of software at critical points in time, and implements procedures to control changes to an identified attribute with the objective of maintaining software integrity and traceability throughout the software life cycle. Software configuration management and tfs version control. These systems are specifically tailored to manage trees of source code and have many features that are specific to software developmentsuch as natively understanding programming languages, or supplying tools for building software. As software configuration management tools are version control and textual friendly we can make changes in code. Merge for windows integrates with most version control vc, software configuration management scm and other applications that allow a thirdparty file comparison diff or file merging tool to be specified.
Scm relies on subversion, an open source version control tool designed to be an enhanced successor to cvs. Puppet is an opensource software configuration management tool. Version control software, including the well known svn and git, was designed from the ground up to allow teams of programmers to work on a project together without wasting manhours on paperwork. Configuration management determines clearly about the items that make up the software or system. Introduction to version control and configuration management. Configuration management, however, can have many connotations, depending on whos discussing it. The latest approved version of the product and its components are used at all times. Configuration management cm is a systems engineering process for establishing and maintaining consistency of a products performance, functional, and physical attributes with its requirements, design, and operational information throughout its life. O pen source tools such as sccs source code control system for oracle.
Git is one of the best version control tools that is available in the present market. Perforce software is also the parent company of perfecto and rogue wave. It fills a similar role to the free software rcs, prcs, and aegis packages. But, there is a whole lot more to configuration than managing source codes when it comes to devops. Over time, it systems invariably move towards a state of disorder. If two developers change the same file, that file might be. Perforce software development tools for innovation at scale. Scm covers many different areas, but in this article im going to talk about how to structure team foundation server tfs version control to give you the most flexibility in dealing with different situations. A component of software configuration management, version control, also known as revision control or source control, is the management of changes to documents, computer programs, large web sites, and other collections of information. Indeed, the problem is now an embarassment of reasonable choices. Jan 10, 2019 configuration management, however, can have many connotations, depending on whos discussing it. Source control, build, deployment, continuous integration ci, continuous deployment, continuous delivery, devops. There are two components to the configuration management system. Software configuration management and labview national.
Software configuration management is referred to as source control, change management, and version control. Git is a great tool for software configuration management scm and version control. What is the difference between configuration management and. Source control tools include github, svn, gitlab, and bitbucket. Changes are usually identified by a number or letter code, termed the revision number, revision level, or simply revision.