Forums » Help » Version control -git, mercurial, svn?

I'm pretty new to impactjs, but my progress is moving along nicely.

I'm at a place where I'd like to start using some sort of version control and was wondering how other people are handling this?

I bounce back and forth from Mac and PC, but my primary development machine is Mac.

I'm currently working on getting some web hosting and getting a website setup. Does it make sense to use my web hosting with version control? I'm new to all this web stuff.

Thanks!

I think it makes sense to use version control with any project of any real complexity, pretty much regardless of what it is.

Me personally I use SVN but that's because I'm not hip enough to really understand Git.

you need version controls of course.

and im very hip, so im a big fan of git!

because:
- local commits, you dont need to be online to commit or you can use git completely offline/local
- branching becomes so damn sexy

Thank you Arantor and drailing.

This is an interesting topic to me because I want to make sure my work is safe.

@Arantor - do you save your SVN to your web hosting, or does it live locally?

@drailing - is git it's own thing? Meaning do you have to use their services or is it something that can be installed within your web hosting?

I feel like if I'm going to be purchasing web hosting it would make sense to use that for keeping my code repositories. Is that the right idea? Or am I thinking about this the wrong way?

I'm casual-hip and git is it.

PS: on OSX and using front-end gitbox with small team of 3.

PPS: @munho You can run git locally without need for server or hosting. If you plan on working with a team, or crave the safety of off-site storage, then you'll need to setup some account with github (free for open source) or choose from a plethora of vendors (we use codeplane), or of course hosting your own. In the latter case, there are several good reads and online resources on the matter.

@alexandre - thanks for the answer. I think I'm interested with hosting my own even though I'm the sole developer at this time. I'm going to need the web hosting for at least one website anyways and I think it makes sense to be covered with an off-site storage solution.

I guess I don't understand the pros and cons of hosting my own vs. using something like codeplane? It seems to me the only difference is I have to pay for codeplane and webhosting if I use both.

git is completely free and can be installed on every linux distribution.

for administration you should use gitosis (or if im right gitolite is the following project)

Thanks @drailing. Can you comment on your opinion of using a vendor to host your code or using your own hosting?

+ first of all you can lern a lot with your own hosting
+ you can configure everything to your needs and its cheaper of course.
+ you can easy set up pre and post-commit scripts (e.g. to bake the game or to copy the new stuff to the webserver)

- needs more time to setup
- if you are destroying anything, google is your only support. (but google is allmighty -> no problem)
- depending on your experience you need more patience and backups (e.g. i killed my public key file, thank god i did not disabled pw login)

and there are a lot of good tutorials, so everyone is able to do it.


a vendor takes all the pain away, you have nice interfaces, with a simple click a new repo or a new user, in fact more time to code, but for more money less from everything, including less experience and the feeling of a real man :-)

I am totally new to version control (as in I've worked in a team development environment that has uses version control, but my role didn't directly involve dealing with the system).

I am leaning toward Git/GitHub specifically. However I've seen many people mention that if you're doing a private project the cost is actually fairly high for the number of repositories they need.

So my question is - what IS an actual repository? Is a "project" a repository (so one game would have one repository) or is it a case of each repository being a different version/fork of the game, or something totally different? I'm just trying to get a grasp of how many repositories I'd actually need as someone who would only be working on one game, two max, at a time.

A repository is a place where you store code. Some repositories hold multiple projects, some a single project. It really depends what you're comfortable with, though very generally one project = one repository, tracking the history of code changes.

Personally I store all my projects on a RepositoryHosting.com account, which for $6 a month works out pretty well (and offers Git, SVN and Mercurial)

I use bit bucket private git repos for free is the way to go and you can have up to 5 members in for free.

@Jerczu - thanks. I had seen bitbucket before.

It would be nice to set things up myself, but I would honestly rather be creating graphics and coding with that time. So I'll likely pick one of these services to host my code.

I'm always wary of these places that offer the "free" hosting per se. Nothing is free and I want to protect my code as best as possible. Am I being overprotective? Or is this just noob talking?

Either Git or Mercurial. Try both!

Or... see here ;) http://gitvsmercurial.com/

As a followup, I signed up for a bitbucket.org account. I have my first project there using git. Thanks for everyone's help.

Just installed Git and set up a private repo with GitHub. So far so good :) Still lots to learn, but getting there.

If it's just you using the project and you don't care about the actual version control part of version control, just sharing the code, I'd recommend just using DropBox. I use that in combination with Mercurial, but you could certainly just use dropbox on both computers and call it a day.

Well difference between GitHub and bit bucket is that you don't have to pay for private repos that no one else can access both are the same service pretty much. GitHub of course is the most popular one.