Re: checkouts control

[David H. Thornley]

address@hidden wrote:
> 
> Hi all
> 
> I am new to CVS and CM but am responsible now for managing a small
> repository in my company.I have no one experienced in this field to
> ask these questions.
> I have a question in general about configuration management.Is it
> necessary to document check outs from a CVS repository?Will it serve
> any purpose? will it make keeping track of releases,tags,branches etc
> more easy?is it a good practice to allow uncontrolled check outs to
> all developers in a project?If someone can advice on this ,I will be
> grateful.
> 
I see no obvious reason to keep track of checkouts.  In CVS, a
checkout is just getting a local copy of the repository, with
no implications about checking in.  There are a lot of
anonymous CVS sites that allow anybody to check out from their
repository.

If you're looking for a way to track who's planning to change
what, the watch/edit facilities should work well.  Look up
"cvs watch" and "cvs edit".  Basically, if you have a watch
set on files, then you will be informed whenever somebody issues
a "cvs edit" command.  If you have "cvs watch on", then all
checkouts and updates of the files will be read-only, and this
will be a reminder to "cvs edit" before working on the files.
(Yes, the developer can change permissions by himself or herself.
If you can't trust somebody to follow basic procedure, fire that
person.)


-- 
David H. Thornley                          Software Engineer
at CES International, Inc.:  address@hidden or (763)-694-2556
at home: (612)-623-0552 or address@hidden or
http://www.visi.com/~thornley/david/