What Does a Release Manager Do?

If the software crisis in the 1970s led to the birth of software engineering ideas and the development of theoretical systems, then the rapid development of the software industry in the 1980s and 1990s, especially the 1990s, led to the emergence and realization of another new idea. Version management.

Version manager

If it's the 70's

As long as

Prehistoric period :

RCS of 1982. You may still find it in the Unix distribution now.

VSS 6.0 is now part of the Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 development product family, such as Visual C ++ 6.0 and Visual J ++ 6.0.

1. Simple working principle of VSS

Microsoft's VSS 6.0 solves the long-term version management problems faced by the software development team. It may effectively help the project development team leader to manage the project procedures, and all the project source files (including various file types) are unique. Way into the database. Members of the development team cannot directly modify the files in the database. Instead, the version manager copies the source program of the project or the source program of the subproject to each member's own working directory for debugging and modification. Then submit the modified project file to VSS as Checkin, and it will be comprehensively updated. VSS also supports fast and efficient file sharing between multiple projects. When a member adds a file to VSS, the file will be backed up to the database so that all members can share the file. And every member's changes to all project files will be recorded in the database, so that the recovery and undo of the changes can be made at any time, anywhere. Members of the team may get the latest version of the project, modify it, and save a new version.

VSS's project organization and management makes the coordination of the development team simple and easy and intuitive. When one and a group of files are distributed to another member, group, Web site or any other address, VSS ensures that they are truly shared and Security of different versions of a selected set of files. Now, more and more developers can access VSS functions through their development environment. And VSS can be easily integrated with Microsoft Access, Visual Basic, Visual C ++, Visual FoxPro and other development tools. Once VSS is integrated into the development environment, it can be used like a control, which can well reflect the VSS's Ease of use and power.

Several important concepts in VSS

In order to better understand VSS, it is necessary to explain the following concepts.

The first is the concept of a project. The so-called project is a group of files (any type) stored in VSS. Files can be added, deleted, edited, and shared between projects. A project has many similarities to operating system folders, but it better supports file consolidation, history, and versioning. All the files are stored in the VSS database project. Members of the development team cannot work on the main backup file in VSS (except for special cases such as checking and version comparison). Instead, VSS provides each member with a working directory Copy for work. Although you can view a file without a working directory, you must create a working directory if you really want to work under VSS management. VSS can maintain multiple versions of a file, including a record of changes made between different versions. Version control includes the following:

Coordination within a groupIn general, ensure that only one member makes changes to a particular file at any one time. This prevents files from being accidentally updated by other members' modifications. Of course, the VSS administrator can change this default setting to allow multiple checkouts of a single file at the same time, and still prohibit overwriting of other people's modifications.

Version trackingArchive and track older versions of source code and other files, and these versions can be retrieved for bug tracking or other purposes.

Cross-platform developmentSupports version control of the same code across multiple development platforms.

Reuse or object-oriented codea module that tracks which programs use which code and which can be reused.

The meaning of version control will be discussed further in later chapters.

We already know that VSS provides version control and history services to ensure that every version of a file is recoverable. VSS uses date / time stamps to record when files are checked out or modified. There are three main ways to track the version of files and projects:

Version number: This is an internal digital maintained by VSS, users have no control over it. Each version of each file and project has a version number, which is always an integer and is increasing.

Tags: These are a string that a user assigns to a certain version of a project or file. It can be any string of up to 31 characters in length.

Date / Timestamp: It gives information about when a file was last modified, or when a file was checked in. VSS supports both 12-hour and 24-hour time formats.

The working directory is where the user actually debugs and modifies the project file. When the user checks out or extracts a file, VSS copies the item to the user's working directory. When the user modifies the file and checks it in or commits, VSS Copy it from the user's working directory back to the VSS database. When a user does Checkout, VSS will automatically manage his working directory, such as creating necessary subdirectories. And the working directory can be created or modified at any time.

3. Some new features and functions of VSS 6.0

Archive and restoreIn VSS 6.0, these two operations were performed in a user-friendly VSS administrator wizard. In previous versions, they were only available through the command line.

Move filesWhen a user moves a file, VSS 6.0 automatically shares the file to a new project and deletes it from the original project. The properties of the file are shared in the new project.

Comparison of differences between multiple projects-This feature allows users to compare differences between different projects.

Single file expansionIn previous versions, VSS could only expand one directory (folder). In VSS 6.0, one file can be expanded at the same time.

Fast extractionBecause of the performance improvements in VSS 6.0, file extraction is now about twice as fast as previous VSS versions.

Historical information filteringVSS 6.0 supports viewing the history of files and projects without tags.

Clear Temporary Folder OptionThis new feature makes it easy for users to clear the temporary folder.

Checking External HyperlinksIn earlier versions of VSS, only internal hyperlinks and jumps within the project were checked. VSS 6.0 allows users to check for hyperlinks and jumps outside the project.

Create Shortcuts to Open VSS DatabaseUsers can use this new feature in VSS Explorer to create a desktop shortcut to open a specific VSS database.

Help in HTML format-Previous versions of VSS used WinHelp format.