When will CVS be replaced by modern version control system?

Christopher Aillon caillon at redhat.com
Mon Nov 12 14:12:43 UTC 2007


Jesse Keating wrote:
> Have you ever found yourself needing to do any of those things within
> the context of our Package VCS?

I personally, as a packager, do not care whether we stay with CVS or 
move to another "more better" system.  My packaging work flow for the 
most part is satisifed with CVS.  But also keep in mind that much of the 
current package workflow has been defined by the limitations of CVS. 
Our current faux-branching scheme was in part done because of CVS, for 
example.

All that aside, I do strongly believe that Fedora is supposed to be the 
"leading edge" distribution.  And this distinction goes beyond what 
users see into what the behind-the-scenes people see.  At least it 
should, in my opinion.  Fedora has been doing a great job in positioning 
itself to be leading the pack in terms of the tools we use, such as with 
koji, bodhi, and smolt.  They are best in class, I'd say.

Then, there's CVS.  Even if we can't agree on whether to switch to git 
vs hg vs svn vs bzr, we can all agree that CVS... well, sucks.  Not so 
leading edge.

Does this matter?  Maybe, maybe not.  Maybe the people who are looking 
for an excuse to not contribute to Fedora can use CVS as a reason for 
now.  Maybe they'd find some other reason if we moved away from CVS. 
But maybe there are people who are looking for the bleeding edge distro 
to contribute to.  CVS might be the thing that shuns them away from 
Fedora.  Maybe other distros start marketing themselves as more bleeding 
edge than Fedora because they use a VCS not from the dark ages, and 
maybe they eventually move to better tools comparable to ours.

Returning to your original question, which I'll paraphrase as "what do 
we gain by moving away from CVS?"  Not much.  A small number of users 
will take advantage of the features that the new VCS gives them.

But if we ask "what do we lose by not moving away from CVS?" then I 
think the answer is that we lose the ability to claim we are leading 
edge, and we may potentially lose more than that in the long run.

The cries might not be loud right now.  But they will get louder over 
time as CVS usage becomes more equated with the Flintstones.  And I 
believe that at some point, it can be a deciding criterion in which 
distribution people will contribute their spare time on.  People can be 
religiously petty that way, for better or for worse.




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