Version Control

The record-keeping layer of software: every change attributed, every state recoverable, every branch a parallel history.

Core Principles & Analysis

• SCCS (1972) was the first widely used system; RCS and CVS followed.
• Linus Torvalds wrote Git in 2005, after a licensing dispute with the BitKeeper company.
• Git's data model is a content-addressable snapshot graph, not the diffs most people imagine.