(emacs)Concepts of VC
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Concepts of Version Control
When a file is under version control, we also say that it is
"registered" in the version control system. Each registered file has a
corresponding "master file" which represents the file's present state
plus its change history, so that you can reconstruct from it either the
current version or any specified earlier version. Usually the master
file also records a "log entry" for each version describing what was
changed in that version.
The file that is maintained under version control is sometimes called
the "work file" corresponding to its master file.
To examine a file, you "check it out". This extracts a version of
the source file (typically, the most recent) from the master file. If
you want to edit the file, you must check it out "locked". Only one
user can do this at a time for any given source file. (This kind of
locking is completely unrelated to the locking that Emacs uses to
detect simultaneous editing of a file.)
When you are done with your editing, you must "check in" the new
version. This records the new version in the master file, and unlocks
the source file so that other people can lock it and thus modify it.
Checkin and checkout are the basic operations of version control.
You can do both of them with a single Emacs command: `C-x C-q'
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