Path: news1.ucsd.edu!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!swrinde!cssun.mathcs.emory.edu!gatech!news.mathworks.com!uunet!inXS.uu.net!news.iac.honeywell.com!dwe From: dwe@eng.iac.honeywell.com (Dave Eaton) Newsgroups: comp.software.config-mgmt,comp.answers,news.answers Subject: comp.software.config-mgmt FAQ: Configuration Management Tools Summary Followup-To: comp.software.config-mgmt Date: 8 Jul 1996 15:26:47 GMT Organization: Honeywell IAC, Phoenix AZ Lines: 1493 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU Distribution: world Expires: 23 Jul 1996 17:00:00 GMT Message-ID: <4rr9bn$m6o@cstnews.iac.honeywell.com> Reply-To: dwe@eng.iac.honeywell.com NNTP-Posting-Host: adm02.iac.honeywell.com Summary: Software Configuration Management Tools Summary. Part 2 of 3 related CM posts. Keywords: CM Tools FAQ X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL1] Xref: news1.ucsd.edu comp.software.config-mgmt:4049 comp.answers:15625 news.answers:62337 Archive-name: sw-config-mgmt/cm-tools Last-modified: 1996/07/03 Version: 3.1 Posting-Frequency: monthly -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Configuration Management Tools Summary -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Introduction This is the newsgroup comp.software.config-mgmt "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQ) posting of a Software Configuration Management tools summary. This is part 2 of the 3 part FAQ. The information contained in this summary is a consolidation of data obtained from a variety of sources around the Internet, but primarily from articles and comments posted on the comp.software.config-mgmt newsgroup. Additional information was obtained from the comp.software-eng newsgroup and from the InterWorks (Technical Users Forum of Interex) CASE Special Interest Group. Check the date above to see how recent the information you are reading might be. Sharing Of Information This document, as a collection of information, is Copyright 1995-96 by David W. Eaton. It may be freely redistributed in its entirety provided that this copyright notice is not removed. It may not be sold for profit or incorporated in commercial documents without the written permission of the copyright holder. This article is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. The content is the sole responsibility of the author and contributors, and does not necessarily represent the position of their employers nor an official position or opinion of Honeywell Inc. Please contact the FAQ editor regarding changes. Other Information All parts of this FAQ are posted to this newsgroup on or about the 22nd of each month. (This is done manually and sometimes work interferes with this posting, please excuse any delays.) Like most FAQ lists, these parts are archived at rtfm.mit.edu (and various other sites which archive FAQs.) The parts are named: o cm-tools = Configuration Management Tools Summary (this document) o faq = General Questions o prob-mgt-tools = Problem Management Tools Summary and may be found in directory pub/usenet-by-group/comp.answers/sw-config-mgmt. Those new to the newsgroups should read news.announce.newusers for general information. For those with World Wide Web access, hyperlinked HTML versions of these documents are available via: http://www.iac.honeywell.com/Pub/Tech/CM/index.html (If you type in this URL, remember that it *is* case sensitive.) These are updated throughout the month as changes come in. A letter is added to the version number and the date is changed with each edit to help you determine if you've already seen it. *What this is not.* If you are not sure what we mean by CM, please see our definition in question [1.2] of FAQ section 1. If you still think this will help you with your PC hardware or application configuration, you are mistaken. Please see question [1.10] of FAQ section 1 for some suggestions of other more appropriate newsgroups for your question -- do not post it to comp.software.config-mgmt. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ** What's New this Month? ** 1. Corrected Atria phone number. 2. Added short writeup and contact for HOPE. 3. Several small edits. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Still Needed The following tools have been mentioned in the newsgroups, but contact information (company name, address and phone or ftp location) as well as user comments are needed so they may be included in the report below. o User write-up for Andromede (ESLOG) o User write-up for RCE o User write-up for TLIB ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents 1. Summary 2. Abbreviations Used 3. Process versus Configuration Management 4. Commercial Vendor Contact List 5. Version Control Systems Generally Available Free 6. Commercial Configuration Management Tools 7. Tools Related To Configuration Management 8. CM Tools with World Wide Web sites 1. Summary History The first posting of this FAQ was in April, 1994. Since the newsgroup was relatively new at that time, the early FAQ was 'jump started' with information obtained from the following sources: o the Usenet newsgroup comp.software-eng o the InterWorks (HP Workstation Users Group) CASE SIG mailing list o various printed matter Since then, it has been updated and changed substantially as readers have supplied additional information to the comp.software.config-mgmt newsgroup. Contributions In addition to some of the vendors themselves, most information summarized here comes from newsgroup posts and e-mail received from end users. Our gratitude is been extended to all who have contributed. Instructions for adding or changing information in this FAQ may be found in section 1.8 of part 1, the general FAQ for the comp.software.config-mgmt newsgroup. Not Official Statements Please use the summary below in the spirit with which it has been supplied: for information only. These statements are composites and *do not* represent official positions by any particular responder's company. Remember that these users may not be commenting on the current version of a product. It is recommended that you do your own research before making a tool decision for your company. 2. Abbreviations Used CM The abbreviation "CM" will be used throughout this document to mean "configuration management." FTP The user interface to the ARPANET standard File Transfer Protocol (FTP). The program allows you to transfer files to and from a remote network site. PC Personal Computer - Intel-based IBM or compatible. 3. Process versus Configuration Management Vendors Don't Always Differentiate Some products noted in this FAQ provide configuration management, not development process management, others provide both but to varying degrees. The vendors marketing configuration management tools do not always distinguish the difference nor do they always explain which services their tool is actually trying to provide for you. Briefly, these two concepts are: o Traditional Configuration Management - checkin/checkout control of sources (and sometimes binaries) and the ability to perform builds (or compiles) of the entities. Other functions may be included as well. o Process Management - control of the software development activities. For example, it might check to ensure that a problem report existed and had been approved for fixing and that the associated design, documentation, and review activities have been completed before allowing the code to be "checked in" again. While process management and control are necessary for a repeatable, optimized development process, a solid configuration management foundation for that process is essential. You Choose Be certain to determine what form of management is most important to your project, then be certain the tools you consider provide that function. 4. Commercial Vendor Contact List Vendors Platform availability and products are continually changing, please check vendors for current information and trade publications for new entrants. As of this writing, these vendors could be contacted as shown in this table. Commercial CM Products Product Vendor Address Platforms Aide-de-Camp (ADC) True Software Inc. DEC (VAX/VMS, Digital UNIX) 200 Baker Avenue, HP-UX, RS/6000 AIX, Suite 300 Pyramid S series, UNIX Concord, MA 01742 SGI, Sun (SunOS, Solaris) tel.: 508-369-7398 Unisys U6000 3x/6x UNIX, FAX: 508-369-8272 Sequent DYNIX, PC (DOS info@truesoft.com client, SCO UNIX, Interactive UNIX) (Others by request) AllChange Intasoft Ltd. PC (MS-DOS, MS Windows) Tresco House Sun 153 Sweetbrier Lane Exeter EX1 3DG UK tel.: +44-392-217670 FAX: +44-392-437877 intasoft@cix.compulink.co.uk Andromede Jean-Francois Combes Eslog 2 bis, BUROSPACE 91571 Bievres CEDEX France Tel:00 33 1 69 85 51 51 Continuus/CM Continuus Software Corp. HP-UX, IBM RS/6000, SGI, 108 Pacifica, 2nd floor Sun Irvine, CA 92718-3332 PC (MS Windows, Win95, tel.: 714-453-2200 WinNT client) FAX: 714-453-2276 or, in the UK: tel.: +44-1344-382118 FAX: +44-1344-382158 info@continuus.com Change and Configuration Platinum Technology IBM RS/6000 AIX, Control (CCC/Harvest) 340 South Kellogg Ave. HP-UX, Sun (SunOS and Solaris), Goleta, CA 93117 Digital UNIX, tel.: 708-620-5000 PC (OS/2, Win, Win/NT) 800-442-6861 Change Man Serena International IBM (MVS); PC (OS/2) 500 Airport Blvd. interface available Burlingame, CA 94010 tel.: 415-696-1800 ClearCase Atria Software, Inc. Digital Unix, HP-UX, RS/6000, 20 Maguire Road SGI, Sun, PC (WinNT, Lexington, MA 02173-3104 UnixWare) tel.: 617-676-2400 Attache provides client 1-800-52-ATRIA functions for MS Windows. e-mail: info@atria.com or resold by DEC, SGI, Sun Germany Code Management System Digital Equipment Corp. DEC (VAX VMS) (CMS) and Module DECdirect Management System (MMS) Continental Blvd. Merrimack, NH 03054 tel.: 800-344-4825 Configuration Management IBM Corp. IBM RS/6000, Sun, HP-UX Version Control (CMVC) 1133 Westchester Ave. White Plains, NY 10604 Client only: PC (DOS, tel.: 602-217-2025 OS/2, MS Windows) CMVision and Expertware DEC (VMS, Ultrix, Unix), Configuration Management 12901 Alcosta Blvd. Ste2A HP-UX, IBM RS/6000, PC Facility (CMF) PO Box 1847 (SCO UNIX), Sun San Ramon, CA 94583 tel.: 510-867-0315 CMWin Expertware, Inc. 130 Ryan Industrial Court Suite 210 PO Box 1847 San Remon, CA 94583 Tel: 510-820-7020 510-867-0315 214-357-1485 FAX: 510-820-4123 CMZ CodeME s.a.r.l. PC (DOS), Win/NT (on ALPHA/PC) 14, Rue de l'Eglise DEC/Ultrix, Digital Unix, F-01630 St. Genis-Pouilly VAX/VMS & Alpha/OPENVMS, France Silicon Graphics IRIX, tel.: +33 50420914 SUN (OS4 and Solaris), FAX: +33 50 42 09 14 HP9000/700 HPUX, Apollo, distributed via CERN: IBM RS/6000 AIX, IBM VM/CMS, codeme@cernvm.cern.ch MVS/TSO, MVS/NEWLIB, CRAY XMP/YMP UNICOS, NeXtStep, LINUX, Alliant, Convex, Gould CONTROL-CS Network Concepts, Inc. Server: Tandem NSK and 201 littleton Road Integrity NR, SGI. Morris Plains, NJ 07950 (Sun and WinNT tel.: 201-285-0202 in progress) nci@netwkconcept.com Client: PC (MS Windows, WinNT, Win95, OS/2) Corporate RCS Thompson Automation HP-UX, Sun (Solaris), Software PC (DOS, MS Windows, WFW 5616 SW Jefferson Win95, WinNT, OS/2) Portland, OR 97221 Tel: 800-944-0139 503-224-1639 FAX: 503-224-3230 CVS Cyclic Software Most Unix systems, P.O. Box 804 NT client, VMS client, Bloomington, IN 47402 will contract for additional tel.: 812-335-9023 ports. info@cyclic.com DevMan VNP Software NextStep, Sun (OS and Solaris) 180 Franklin St. HP-UX Cambridge, MA 02139 USA tel.: 802-496-7799 FAX: 802-496-7790 DRCS Software Services and Next, UNIX Solutions, Inc. 94 Murray Street Meriden, CT 06450 tel.: 203-630-2000 FAX: 203-630-2020 e-mail: sss@sss.com DRTS ILSI Sun (SunOS), PC (DOS, 6235 E. Monte Carlo Ave MS Windows, Win95, Scottsdale, AZ 85254 SCO UNIX) Tel: 602-991-8281 FAX: 602-991-6324 e-mail: ilsi@enet.net Endevor Computer Associates IBM (MVS), PC (DOS, 1 Computer Associates Plaza OS/2, Win/NT) Islandia, N.Y. 11788 1-800-225-5224 1-516-342-5224 Endevor/WSX Computer Associates Sun OS and Solaris, 1 Computer Associates Plaza HP-UX. Islandia, N.Y. 11788 1-800-225-5224 1-516-342-5224 ExcoConf Excosoft AB DEC OpenVMS, HP-UX, Electrum 420 IBM AIX, Sun, 164 40 Kista Sweden PC (MS Win3.1, Win95, NT) tel.: +46 8 703 9190 FAX: +46 8 703 9490 info@excosoft.se Human-Oriented Aladdin Knowledge PC (MS Win95, NT) Programming Environment Systems, Inc. (Sun Solaris in progress) (HOPE) tel.: 800-223-4277 tel.: 212-564-5678 FAX: 212-564-3377 hope.sales@us.aks.com MKS Source Integrity MKS Inc. PC (MS-DOS, MS Windows, 185 Columbia Street West Win/NT, OS/2, SCO UNIX), Waterloo, Ontario Most UNIX's (H-P, IBM Canada N2L 5Z5 RS/6000, Sun. tel.: 1-800-265-2797 See writeup or 1-519-884-2251 for others.) FAX: 1-519-884-0547 e-mail: inquiry@mks.com P3 P3 Software Client: FreeBSD, Linux, 915 Delmar Ave Digital Unix, H-P, RS/6000, Alameda, CA 94501 SCO, Sun (Solaris, SunOS), USA NT, (MS Windows in 96) tel.: 510-865-8720 Server: FreeBSD, Linux, FAX: 510-595-8437 Digital Unix, H-P, RS/6000, p3@p3.com Sun (Solaris, SunOS) (Win/NT in 96) Process Configuration SQL Software, Ltd. Bull, DEC (VMS, Ultirx, Mangement System (PCMS) Northbrook House Unix), H-P, ICL, Sequent, John Tate Road Sun, PC (Win/NT coming) Hertford SG13 7NN UK tel.:+44-992-501-414 FAX: +44-992-501-616 or SQL Software, Inc. 8500 Leesburg Pike Suite 405 Vienna, VA USA 22182 tel.: 703-760-0448 FAX: 703-760-0446 Product Configuration Tesseract Technologies PC (DOS) Management (PCM) (Pty) Ltd (Windows / Win95 in dev.) P.O. Box 9 Irene 1675 South Africa tel.:+27-12-997-2427 415-981-1800 FAX: +27-12-997-1082 tesseract@pixie.co.za PVCS Intersolv, Inc. HP-UX, IBM RS/6000, SCO, 1700 NW 167th Place Sun, PC (OS/2, SCO, Win, Beaverton, OR 97006 Win/NT, QNX) tel.: 503-645-1150 (VMS available from DISC) pvcsinfo@intersolve.com Revision Management Data Design Systems, Inc. Server: Tandem Himalaya System (RMS) 5915 Airport Blvd. Suite 625 Clients: Unix, Mississauga, ON L4V 1T1 PC (Win, Win95, Win/NT, Canada OS/2) tel.: 905-677-6666 FAX: 905-677-6671 sales@datadesign.com Razor Tower Concepts, Inc. Sun (both Solaris and 103 Sylvan Way SunOS), HP, SGI, New Hartford, NY 13413 RS/6000, Digital Unix tel.: 315-724-3540 FAX: 315-724-3129 razor-info@tower.com Revision Control Engine Xcc Software Technology MS Windows 3.x, (RCE) Transfer GmbH MS Win/NT 3.x, Durlacher Allee 53 several UNIX versions D-76131 Karlsruhe Germany Tel.: +49 - 721-61 64 74 FAX : +49 - 721-62 13 84 rce@xcc-ka.de Software Configuration IBM Corp. A component of ISPF Library Manager (SCLM) for IBM MVS mainframes Software Management Intasoft Ltd. Apollo, Bull, HP, IBM System (SMS) Tresco House AIX, Sequent, SCO UNIX, 153 Sweetbrier Lane DRS 3000, OS9, Sun Exeter EX1 3DG UK MS-DOS, MS Windows tel.: +44-392-217670 FAX: +44-392-437877 SABLIME AT&T Software Solutions (wide range of UNIX) Group 10 Independence Blvd. Room 3A-32 Warren, New Jersey 07059 tel.: 800-462-8146 or 908-580-6444 FAX: 908-580-6335 Europe: +45 43 42 13 42 Europe FAX: +45 43 42 23 42 SoftBench CM Hewlett-Packard HP-UX, Solaris 3404 E. Harmony Road Fort Collins, CO 80525 tel.: 1-800-738-4447 Dept. A225 Source Code Manager UniPress Software Inc Unix: HP, IBM, Sun, 2025 Lincoln Hwy SGI, SCO, DEC, Unixware, Edison, NJ 08817 Linux scm@unipress.com tel.: 908-287-2100 800-222-0550 FAX: 908-287-4929 SPARCworks/TeamWare SunSoft Sun (SunOS, Solaris 2) ProWorks/TeamWare 2550 Garcia Ave. Intel (Solaris, UnixWare) Mountain View, CA 94043 HP (Early Access in 1994) tel.: 1-800-SUNSOFT (U.S.) +1 415-336-6848 FAX: +1 415-968-6396 e-mail:sunpro-info@sun.com StarTeam StarBase Corporation PC (Win95, WinNT) 18872 MacArthur Blvd. #300 Irvine, Ca. 92715 tel.: 714-442-4400 FAX: 714-442-4404 TLIB Burton Systems Software PC P.O.Box 4157 Cary, NC 27519-4157 USA tel.: 1-919-233-8128 FAX: 1-919-233-0716 VCS-UX Diamond Optimum Systems, HP/3000 (HP-MPE) Inc. HP/9000 (HP-UX) 22801 Ventura Blvd. IBM RS/6000 (AIX) Suite 105 Sun Woodland Hills, CA 91364 PC (MS Windows, OS/2) tel.: 818-224-2010 FAX: 818-224-2009 e-mail: DiamondOS@aol.com Visual SourceSafe Microsoft Corp. PC (MS-DOS, MS Windows, One Microsoft Way Win/NT: Intel, Alpha, MIPS), Redmond, WA 98052-6399 Macintosh tel.: 800-426-9400 FAX: 206-635-6100 Mainsoft "UNIX soon" tel.: 800-MAIN WIN Versions Of Outdated UNI Software Plus Macintosh Documents Organized Softwarepark Hagenberg Orthogonally (Voodoo) A-4232 Hagenberg AUSTRIA (Europe) FAX: +43 (7236) 37 69 voodoo@unisoft.co.at As with products in many markets, some CM Tools and vendors come in and some leave. The following list contains information for products which may be still in use, but for which newsgroup contributors were unable to locate current market contacts or for which the vendors had advised the tool was obsolete. They are listed here to help anwsers questions such as "Heard about tool XYZ?" (If any tools are erroneously listed here, please accept our appologies and inform the FAQ editor so it may be corrected.) Commercial CM Products Product Vendor Address Platforms Adele Verilog SA HP-UX, Sun 150 Rue Nicolas Vauqelin BP 1310, 31106 Toulouse Cedex, France (No longer marketed) Domain Software Hewlett-Packard Co. Apollo Engineering Environment 300 Apollo Drive (DSEE) Chelmsford, MA 01824 tel.: 1-800-637-7740 (US) 1-800-387-3867 (Canada) (No longer marketed) MS Delta Microsoft (Retired and replaced by Visual SourceSafe) 5. Version Control Systems Generally Available "Free" "Free" But Perhaps Not Fully Supported There are a number of tools generally available at no charge - some are delivered with most UNIX systems (so yes, you pay for them, but the price is bundled with what you pay your vendor already), others need to be transferred from an archive site on the Internet using a tool such as FTP. In some cases they will need to be compiled at your site. Most come bundled with adequate documentation. Since many of these tools are provided without support, it may not be advisable to use them on some projects. For completeness, they have been listed here despite that potential drawback. Those tools with World Wide Web sites are listed in section 8, CM Tools With World Wide Web Sites at the end of this document. (The Web site may provide more specific product information than can be made available in this FAQ.) Emacs Offers Extensions For Version Control While not a CM tool in itself, Emacs 19 includes a mode called VC that increases the leverage available from RCS, SCCS, or CVS, and decreases the hassles of using those CM tools. VC automatically detects which version control system is being used and auto-configures for it. (Systems can be mixed and it will do the right thing). It hides the details of registration, checkin, checkout and lock-stealing behind a simple one-command "do the next logical thing" interface -- users never leave Emacs. VC also includes functions for viewing version diffs and change histories, making and retrieving named release snapshots, and generating version-difference patches. It even supports a modified Dired mode that allows you to do "batch" version-control operations on groups of files (for example, it becomes trivial to check in changes to 23 different files with the same change comment). Additional information may be obtained by invoking Emacs 19 and typing `M-x info RETURN m emacs RETURN m vc RETURN'. Aegis Aegis is a project change supervisor distributed under the GNU public license. It was written by Peter Miller (pmiller@bmr.gov.au). Reportedly it is a developer's tool, not a manager's tool. It does not provide progress tracking or manage work allocation. Aegis 2.2 copes with heterogenous environments. While CVS (described elsewhere in this report) provides a repository; aegis provides a repository, a baseline, mandatory reviews and mandatory testing. Aegis may be configured to use almost any history tool (such as RCS) and almost any dependency maintenance tool (such as make), although traditional make may not be sufficiently capable. The most significant point of departure between CVS and Aegis is around the "checkin" function. Although CVS does have the ability to run a script which allow or disallows a checkin before it occurs, Aegis breaks this step into several pieces: the change must be known to build, the change must have tests and those tests be known to have run and passed, the change must then be reviewed (double check), and then built and tested again (triple check). Aegis is available via anonymous FTP at: Host: ftp.agso.gov.au Directory: /pub/Aegis File: aegis.2.3.README A blurb about it File: aegis.2.3.tar.gz The complete source File: aegis.2.3.ps.gz The User Guide Mirrors exist at: Host: archie.au /pub/Aegis Host: sunsite.unc.edu /pub/Linux/devel/vers_cont/aegis.2.3.tar.gz and the sunsite mirrors. BCS BCS stands for Baseline Configuration System. It was written by Jay Berkenbilt (qjb@netrail.net) and is still being enhanced and maintained. Like CVS, BCS attempts to add concurrency to an existing version control system, but it does so with a different approach. The primary function of BCS is to maintain a stable "baseline" controlled under RCS or SCCS and multiple "staging areas" that are mirrors of the baseline (implemented as symbolic link trees). BCS is currently at version 2.0.2. Version 3.0 is under development. The latest BCS distribution as well as a user's manual for the latest alpha version can be found at the following location: ftp://ftp.netrail.net/pub/users/glyndwr/q/ CVS CVS, which requires RCS, extends RCS to control concurrent editing of sources by several users working on releases built from a hierarchical set of directories. "RCS is [analogous to using] assembly language, while CVS is [like using] Pascal", according to the author. Beginning with rev 1.8, a "cvs annotate" command will display the last modification for each line of a file, with the revision number, user checking in the modification, and date of the modification. CVS 1.8 is available in file cvs-1.8.tar.gz at the GNU FTP sites (prep.ai.mit.edu and its mirrors). CVS is still maintained; here are some recent pointers. - Frequently asked questions o - Releases o latest official release o DOS, OS/2 ports o NT port o Test releases and snapshots CVS 1.5 added network transparency to CVS; it supports efficient, reliable, and authenticated repository access via TCP/IP. Cyclic Software also offers commercial support for CVS; see . A user WWW site is available at http://www.loria.fr/~molli/cvs-index.html Package tkcvs-6.0a1 is a Tk based graphical interface to CVS. ICE Its authors report that the Incremental Configuration Engine (ICE) is a tool that will provide a logic-based support for all areas of configuration management, including integrated and uniform revision and variant management, binary file repositories, inference of configuration consistency, and deductive program construction, while being as compatible as possible with existing standards. Since at this point ICE is not finished. its current use is limited to simple variant management and inference of configuration consistency. A full-fledged release of ICE is expected around May 1995. A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.cs.tu-bs.de/softech/software/ice_e.html Odin According to author Geoffrey Clemm, Odin is a simpler, more reliable, and more powerful replacement for Make. It is designed to combine the simplicity and elegance of the original Make program with the power of the latest super-Makes. Some of Odin's features include: o building several variants concurrently from a single source tree o parallel builds on multiple remote hosts o persistent dependency database with incremental update o building directly from arbitrary versions of RCS and SCCS files, without requiring checkout of working copy o complete separation between build rules and system definitions Odin is distributed under the GNU General Public License. The source code and reference manual for Odin can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from ftp.cs.colorado.edu (128.138.243.151) in pub/distribs/odin/odin.tar.Z and pub/distribs/odin/odin.ps.Z respectively. You can subscribe to the Odin mailing list (odin@cs.colorado.edu) by sending a "subscribe odin" mail message to odin-request@cs.colorado.edu. Quma Version Control System (QVCS) Author Jim Voris (jimv@clark.net) reports that although QVCS is not a heavyweight product, it is fine for small projects running on MS DOS 3.1 or MS Windows 3.1 or higher. Its command line (only) interface provides functions similar to PVCS. QVCS may be obtained via anonymous ftp from ftp.clark.net in /pub/jimv/qvcs.zip. A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.clark.net/pub/jimv/qvcsman.html RAD/CVS RAD/CVS is an object-oriented, Tcl interface to the Concurrent Versions System (CVS). The RAD/CVS Tcl Interface implements an abstract interface that is not dependent upon CVS and could conceivably be implemented using other underlying implementations (e.g. RCS, SCCS, PVCS). It has a Tk/Tix interface and is available for non-commercial use only. Additional information and download instructions are available on the Web at http://www.indirect.com/www/radsoft/radcvs/. RCS RCS (Revision Control System) is often considered to be better than SCCS. One reason for this is that RCS baselines the most recent version and keeps deltas for earlier ones, making new development faster. It still requires scripts to make life easier on the developer. Originally created by Walter Tichy, RCS is still maintained by Purdue (e-mail to rcs-bugs@cs.purdue.edu). It is available on the GNU distribution, has been widely ported, and is free. RCS is available via anonymous FTP from: site filename cs.purdue.edu pub/RCS/rcs-5.7.tar.Z prep.ai.mit.edu pub/gnu/rcs-5.7.tar.gz ftp.leo.org pub/comp/os/os2/gnu/devtools/ (DOS, OS/2 ports) ftp.cica.indiana.edu pub/pc/win3/nt/gr5*, gd2* (DOS, Windows NT ports) virginia.edu pub/vms/*.zoo (VAX VMS port) wuarchive.wustl.edu systems/amiga/aminet/dev/misc/HWGRCS* (Amiga port) systems/atari/umich.edu/Programming/rcs* (Atari port) DOS and NT versions are on ftp.cica.indiana.edu, and various mirror sites, in the pub/pc/win3/nt directory: gr564b.zip - DOS binaries and manpages (including GNU diff 2.5) gr564bnt.zip - Windows NT binaries and manpages (including GNU diff 2.5) gr564s.zip - RCS sources RCS works best with GNU diffutils 2.7; look for diffutils-2.7.tar.Z. Many CASE tools interface with RCS. rcsview - RCS and CVS file viewer Written in Tcl, rcsview is a companion tool that allows you to view the different versions of an ASCII file that is being maintained under RCS or CVS. Each line is colored according to the file version from which it came. The initial version to view may be specified on the command line; if no version is specified, the most recent version is viewed. It is available by ftp from: ftp.pmg.lcs.mit.edu/pub/andru/rcsview-1.2.tar.gz - its author is Andrew Myers (andru@lcs.mit.edu). SCCS SCCS (Source Code Control System) is comes with most UNIX distributions. It has been ported to many different platforms, but is no longer being enhanced or improved. Though disputed, the general consensus has been that this tool is clumsy and not suited to large numbers of users working on one project. A common misconception is that SCCS baselines the initial version and keeps deltas to create newer versions. Actually, SCCS interleaves all the versions; this is not as bad as the common misconception, but it can make new development get progressively slower. Many people place scripts around the SCCS commands to improve the user interface. ShapeTools The shape toolkit (ShapeTools) is a set of commands for change control, developed by Axel Mahler, Andreas Lampen and others at the Technical University of Berlin. It consists of a repository (the Attributed File System), version control programs, a build driver (compatible with make), release management system, and EMACS editor interface. ShapeTools 1.3 was released in late May 1992; it runs on many UNIX variants. ShapeTools is available from: site files gatekeeper.dec.com pub/plan/shape/shapeTools-1.3.tar.Z pub/plan/shape/shapeTools-1.4.tar.gz In addition, gatekeeper has a mail archive server; send a message to ftpmail@gatekeeper.dec.com whose body contains the single line "help". A user WWW site is available at http://www.cs.tu-berlin.de/~shape/index.html 6. Commercial Configuration Management Tools Growing Number On Market With an increased emphasis on software development costs, more companies have begun offering stand-alone configuration management tools. It is impossible to provide user's comments concerning all the available tools. A brief summary of the tools mentioned most frequently on the Usenet newsgroup comp.software.config-mgmt is provided below so that your site may decide if it would be appropriate to consider one of these tools. These comments do not necessarily reflect the opinion or experiences of the author of this document. Contact information such as address and phone number may be found in section 4, Commercial Vendor Contact List, of this document. Those products with World Wide Web sites are listed in section 8, CM Tools With World Wide Web Sites at the end of this document. (The Web site may provide more specific product information than can be made available in this FAQ.) Mentioned Most Often The ClearCase and Continuus/CM tool set have been mentioned most often by posters to the newsgroup comp.software.config-mgmt. Though now somewhat dated, readers may want to refer to the article Continuus/CM vs ClearCase from SunWorld, July, 1995. References to these tools are followed closely by references to Aide-de-Camp and CCC (Harvest). (This statement is provided for information only, and is not meant to indicate that these products are the "winners" of a sanctioned evaluation of tools.) Aide-de-Camp Aide-de-Camp (ADC) provides an entity relationship database to store attributes of and relationships between files. Changes that are made are flexible until they are installed. A logical change to a version of software is captured as a change set, a concept critical to ADC. Developers work on their own branch by creating a personal change set. All files associated with a change set must be checked in at the same time. Special language scanners determine structural relationships automatically from the source code and this information is used to ensure that builds are performed when required. A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.truesoft.com/ AllChange AllChange is a full-featured configuration management and change control system with integrated problem management from Intasoft. Its features include: o version creation, tracking, restoration o user-definable life-cycles with action triggering for automated procedures o change request/fault tracking, with actions and links to objects o workspaces, shared pools, full configuration building o baselines, releases, monitors, registers, ... o query/reporting facilities o metrics generation and graphical reporting o completely configurable; script language; open interface to tools o Motif/Windows GUIs or command line o available for Unix, Windows 3.x, NT and 95 o client/server support A user reports it is a very flexible configuration management system which may be configured to match whatever life-cycle you are using and to enforce whatever constraints you need. Support has been good. A user WWW site is available at http://gille.loria.fr:7000/cgi-bin/cm/wilma/ccmt.817848747.html CCC/Harvest, CCC/Manager, CCC QuikTrak The Change and Configuration Control (CCC) family of change and configuration control products provide comprehensive CM solutions for every major computing platform, from mainframe to VAX to UNIX to PC, including cross-platform, client/server environments. CCC/Harvest (formerly by Softool) is Platinum Technology's CM solution specifically designed for cross-platform, client/server software development environments. CCC/Harvest utilizes commercially available RDBMSs, integrated problem tracking, an API and GUI to provide process management, visibility and control over the entire development life cycle. CCC/Harvest also provides robust CM features that automate version control, change packaging, staging, concurrent and parallel development, multiple releases, emergency maintenance and software customization. A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.platinum.com CCC/Manager is a CM tool for homogeneous development environments that automates the management of version control, change packaging, staging, concurrent and parallel development, multiple releases, emergency maintenance and software customization. CCC/Manager is available for Windows, OS/2, Windows NT, Sun-4/SPARCstation, HP9000, DEC RISC/ULTRIX, IBM RS/6000, Silicon Graphics and SCO. CCC/Life Cycle Manager provides CM for IBM/MVS systems, including component and application management, application merging, parallel development and vendor code maintenance. CCC QuikTrak is a powerful, automated change and version management tool for Excel spreadsheet users that keeps track of multiple spreadsheet versions and allows users to quickly compare versions and identify the impact of their changes. It also conserves disk space by saving only the changes made to spreadsheets instead of a duplicate of the entire file. CCC QuikTrak appears directly within Excel as an additional menu in the menu bar. ClearCase ClearCase, by Atria Software was designed by the original DSEE architects (see below). It runs on a variety of Unix systems (Digital Unix, RS/6000, Silicon Graphics, HP, and Sun systems) as well as Windows NT. The Attache product provides most client functions for Windows users. Both a command line interface and a GUI are available. In addition to version control and CM functions, advanced capabilities include 32-way merge, versioning of any object (including directories), logical version labeling, parallel builds distributed over a network, and triggers for local site customizing. Versioned history files may be compressed for space savings. The checkout mechanism gives the appearance of leaving the file in place, so the ClearCase source library is often used as a current working directory. Although traditional make files may be used, simpler syntax and enhanced tracking functions are available with clearmake. An automated conversion utility aids migration from other CM tools. The unique DSEE conversion utility preserves all DSEE versions, dates and reasons of changes, indications of merges, and version labels in the new database. The ClearCase MultiSite(TM) option provides support for parallel development and software reuse across geographically distributed project teams, even without a network connection. To purchase, contact Atria Software (see list) or contact your vendor, several of them re-sell ClearCase as an offering of their own. A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.atria.com Continuus/CM Continuus/CM from Continuus Software Corp. (formerly CaseWare, Inc., formerly Amplify Control) is an interactive development environment emphasizing configuration management. Continuus/CM's client/server architecture can be distributed across all supported platforms to implement distributed development and SCM. Main features include: o GUI and Command Line interfaces o Directory based or Classic (CaseWare 3.x) interface styles o Component and Configuration Management o Object Oriented Environment o Fully Automated Builds (ObjectMake, provides for parallel, distributed, remote, and targeted builds. Automated dependency management, and a Bill-of Materials allow for users to gain more control over the build process.) o Process Management (standard process lifecycle provided; can be customized to implement customer-specific processes) o Migration Facility (used for initial migration, third-party vendor code management, distributed code management; graphical or command line based) o Environment Integration (Case Interfaces available: CodeCenter/ObjectCenter, FrameMaker; Integration Frameworks available: SoftBench, ToolBus, WorkBench) o Merge Capability (MergeAhead provided, but the user may choose any available merge tool) o Query/Reporting Facility o Optional Problem Tracking (shared database provides tight coupling of problems and tasks with project components) For users with previous experience with CaseWare and Amplify, the Continuus/CM 4.0 release focuses on ease of use by being directory and make based. The initial migration and training time required is a fraction of what the 3.x releases required. A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.continuus.com/ CMF Configuration Management Facility (CMF) supports a hierarchy of projects, end items and files. Components from the controlled area can easily be moved into and out of the user's staging area. Files can be shared using links; when parallel development is turned on for a link, branching is enabled. There is a facility for problem reports and an extensive capability for forms building and filling. The Build Support Tool provides templates for Makefiles. In addition to the menu driven and command line interfaces, common commands can be executed from the operating system via C functions. CMS and MMS Included in Digital Equipments Corp.'s VAXSET are CMS and MMS. CMS: Code Management System; Code libraries and configuration control. MMS: Module Management System; Like make integrated to CMS. These product are operational on VAX VMS platforms. CMVC IBM Configuration Management and Version Control (CMVC) is a client-server based tool provided with both a GUI and command line interface. It performs integrated defect/feature tracking and source control. Source files are stored in file trees known as Releases. CMVC encourages file sharing via the concept of File Links. A File may be linked to several Releases. Within Releases, files can be grouped into Components. Components are arranged in a tree-like structure. Components provided logical grouping as well as notification and access control to the files and associated Defects. CMVC also provides the concept of a Level, which can be thought of as snapshot (in time) of a given Release. All information about files, defects, etc is stored in a relational database. This makes CMVC a powerful tool for reporting and information gathering. A front-end tool allows users to perform SQL queries. A choice of databases is available, including Sybase, DB/6000, Oracle, and Informix. It is well suited to medium to large projects. A supplier WWW site is available at http://fnctsrv0.chips.ibm.com/products/ppc/Developers/ppctools-62.html CMZ CMZ is a code and text manager for all programming and text processing languages. It is widely used in all High Energy Physics Institutions to provide version archiving, editing, checking, and library management functions. There are some additional built-in utilities to aid C and Fortran users. CMZ files can be binary compressed to minimize the use of disk space. CMZ binary compressed files can be copied from one platform to another without conversion or they can be accessed through mounts over a heterogeneous network via NFS, AFS, etc. CMZ provides an identical user interface on all platforms listed in the table above. In addition, the vendor says they are committed to supporting CMZ on all new popular platforms so that CMZ customers can be assured of continued support in the future. A supplier WWW site is available at http://asdwww.cern.ch/cmz/ CONTROL-CS Network Concepts began offering an SCM tool called CONTROL-CS to the Tandem computer market place in 1982. It now delivers a client-server version. The client runs under several PC operating systems and the server availability is expanding as well. A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.netwkconcept.com Corporate RCS Corporate RCS by Thompson Automation Software manages software versions over mutliple platforms. A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.tasoft.com/~thompson/rcs.html DevMan VNP Software's product DevMan offers CM functions to NextStep users. Its core functions are also available on other platforms. Internally, DevMAn uses the RCS version control facilities. A demo version may be obtained by anonymous ftp from ftp.vnp.com in directory /pub/DevMan. A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.vnp.com/DevMan DRCS DRCS allows NEXTSTEP and UNIX users, whether they're developers or not, to enjoy full version management and revision control of everything from wordprocessor documents to directories of NEXTSTEP projects to entire filesystems. Anyone who can use NEXTSTEP can learn how to use the DRCS Graphical User Interface in a matter of minutes. DRCS provides project lifetime tracking and revision control for entire directories as well as files. DRCS directory archives maintain a history of their previous contents, even if component files have been renamed, or deleted. Users can call DRCS shell commands directly from a terminal window or access the full power of the system through the DRCS Graphical User Interface, which resembles the NEXTSTEP Workspace Manager. A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.opensource.com/Software/Development/DRCS.html DRTS The Distributed Revision Tracking System (DRTS) by ILSI provides software configuration management. A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.i-site.com/~yury/ilsi DSEE Domain Software Engineering Environment (DSEE - pronounced dizzy) by Apollo (now Hewlett-Packard) is an excellent program that has excellent version control and does builds for the user. These builds can be easily customized to a specific purpose and spread out over several different machines simultaneously. It is excellent for large development projects. DSEE's main problem is that it cannot be ported to other machines since it uses proprietary facilities of Domain/OS. Hewlett-Packard has classified Domain/OS as "mature" and is encouraging customers to migrate to HP-UX (which will not run DSEE). This tool is marketed only by Hewlett-Packard. ExcoConf ExcoConf by Excosoft AB is reportedly a high-end SCM tool available for multiple platforms. Marketed since 1986, about 80% of its 200 customers are located in Sweden. Its customer base includes 3-4000 users world wide. Since little has been mentioned on the newsgroup about it, user comments are requested. Please send them to the FAQ editor (see bottom of this FAQ). Endevor/WSX Endevor/WSX (Workstation on UNIX) [formerly TeamNet] from Computer Associates Intnl. [formerly Legent Corporation, formerly TeamOne Systems, Inc.] manages software versions kept in configured directories. Developers check out virtual, modifiable copies of baseline components into their own work areas to perform work. Although the work area appears to any UNIX process to be a full copy of all of the files and directories in the baseline, these Virtual Copies (VCP's) will only occupy physical disk space for any files modified. Each file must be assigned to an Engineering Change Order (ECO) in oder to move changes from the workarea back to the baseline. Emphasis is on sets of changes, not changes to single files. All files grouped as part of a single ECO must be checked in at the same time. An interactive merge facility enables resolution of conflicting changes to common source. Each configured directory has an associated project repository, a database which can be queried to generate reports. TeamNet can manage files on heterogeneous networks. There is a menu-driven interface, an X-Windows based GUI, and a command-line interface. An updated release, merging the TeamNet and Endevor products, was due 1Q95. A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.cai.com MKS Source Integrity MKS Source Integrity from Mortice Kern Systems thinks and works like most software development teams do -- in terms of team based, project oriented, and cross platform development environments. Key features include complete project management facilities, Visual Merge, new reporting capabilities, event triggers, a new configuration language, integration into Visual C++ and Borland C++, an automated building process, file promotion, and NetWare specific functionality. MKS Source Integrity is available on DOS, OS/2, Windows, Windows NT, and a variety of UNIX platforms. A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.mks.com HOPE HOPE is an object-oriented team programming environment for C/C++ and Java which runs on PCs. A version for Solaris under development. User comments are requested. Please send them to the FAQ editor. (see bottom of this FAQ). P3 P3 by P3 Software is a client/server source management system which provides such features as versioning, change control, shared access, and auditing for software production teams. A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.p3.com PCM Tesseract Technology is a small South African company with a suite of DOS products, including Product Configuration Management (PCM). Evaluation copies are available at no cost. A supplier WWW site is available at ftp://lia.co.za/pub/tesseract/tsrhome.htm PCMS PCMS places primary emphasis on software development process management. It is based on an Oracle database engine and its three user interfaces include an Oracle Forms-based interface, a command line interface, and an X-Windows GUI (which was enhanced significantly for version 4.x). All user commands and tool management functions can be accomplished through the GUI. One of the key features is the integration of the problem tracking/change management system with the version management/build system. They are connected via rules defined by the user. The rules allow you to define when changes to approved code and documents can occur: e.g. anytime without approval, or only when a problem report has been approved for implementation. Interactions with other tools is limited but being improved. One advantage is that Oracle is SQL compliant. A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.sql.com/pcms.html PVCS PVCS by Intersolv (a merger of Sage Software and Index Technology) offers basic of support for CM, using SCCS-like commands. It may be more appropriate for small development projects than some of the more complex or more costly products. Reportedly, changes in recent revisions offer more substantial features, but user experience and comment on the newsgroup have not become prevalent yet. Problem tracking is provided via integrations with third-party products such as Control First by Repository Technology (708-515-0780). A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.intersolv.com RAZOR RAZOR from Tower Concepts, Inc. is an easily tailored configuration management package with an integrated problem tracking system. It offers control and coordination of file versioning and product build management for both ASCII and binary files. Its easily parsed ASCII database encourages users to generate their own scripts for report generation and process control. By attaching shell scripts both before and after Razor events, the tool becomes an enforcement vehicle for the development process. Razor is available on SunOS, Solaris, HPUX, AIX, and IRIX; more ports are in progress. A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.tower.com A company representative stressed that it is extremely easy to try out their product. Both documentation and a full copy of the product for evaluation are available by FTP. New releases and patches are handled in the same manner. RCE Xcc Software Technology is now the marketing partner of Mr. Walter F. Tichy, the developer of both RCS and the Revision Control Engine (RCE). The product was announced in spring 1994. The vendor posted several pages of description, stating that RCE was an extension to RCS. Users are encouraged to submit comments on their experiences so they may be summarized in this FAQ. SABLIME SABLIME by AT&T Software Solutions provides managers and developers with a tool that tracks changes to a product consisting of software, hardware, firmware, and/or documents, from its origination, through maintenance, delivery, and support. It has an integrated Modification Request capability. A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.att.com/stc/sablime/SABLIME.html Software Configuration Library Manager (SCLM) SCLM by IBM is a component of ISPF, which is installed on almost every MVS mainframe. It manages (MVS) sources and binaries, features build, promote (move from one development level to another), source versioning and common sources among different projects. A user reports "it has its limitations but can be customized and extended to do very useful things." A supplier WWW site is available at http://booksrv2.raleigh.ibm.com/ispf/ SMS SMS from Intasoft [see vendor list] runs on PCs, UNIX and VAXes. Facilities include source code control, a preprocessor, a build tool and a menu driven front end. The British user who reported on this tool found it very usable, reasonably priced, and containing all he needed. While SMS is a somewhat simpler (and cheaper) tool than others in this list, the same company offers a more full-featured tool named AllChange. Source Code Manager Source Code Manager (SCM), from UniPress Software Inc, is a configuration management tool for Unix users which supports parallel development on multiprogrammer projects. SCM supports command line and X Windows interfaces, multisite, integrated problem tracking and many other advanced features and reports. A free single user -- but multiple working copy -- version of SCM, called SCM-lite, is available on the UniPress Web site, http://www.unipress.com/free_evals/ or via anonymous ftp on eridani.unipress.com/pub/free_evals. SCM and SCM-lite are available for most Unix platforms. StarTeam StarTeam by StarBase Corporation offers common version control features such as check-in/check-out, branching and merging, multiple directory support, and key-word expansion, plus integrated interface features to improve ease of use. Some of the additional features include version and build labels and an integrated defect tracking component. If you are a user of StarTeam, please send comments to the FAQ editor. TeamWare SPARCworks/TeamWare from SunSoft is a visual code management environment featuring tools for both configuration management and for managing team software development processes. SPARCworks/TeamWare includes easy-to-use, graphical tools for version control (VerTool), workspace and directory management (CodeMgrTool), source file configuration archiving (FreezePtTool), project build acceleration (PMake), and automatic file merging (FileMerge). SPARCworks/TeamWare is not based on a proprietary file system. Instead, it relies on standard UNIX utilities and services like SCCS and NFS. Development teams that are already using SCCS can quickly adopt SPARCworks/TeamWare--even continue to use their SCCS wrappers. It has no special networking or administrative requirements, and gives users the ability to customize according to their own development methodologies. There is both an intuitive graphical user interface and command line access, controls for workspace access and notification, and easy manipulation of workspace directories for changing project needs and multiple releases. A free "Try and Buy" 30-day software evaluation kit is available. VCS-UX The vendor says that although VCS-UX has been available in the HP/3000 market for more than 10 years, its UNIX offering is relatively new. Reportedly, one of the most important features of VCS-UX is its ability to control multiple platforms from a single location. This functionality provides a single point of control for an enterprise regardless of the number and type of their software development and distribution environments. Typical Applications include automatic documentation and impact analysis for source code version control (check in, check out) for source code, CAD/CAM, and other files; software distribution among multiple platforms; audit trail of all version control and distribution transactions. It can handle both ASCII and binary files, including those from CAD/CAM applications and several databases. A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.DiamondOS.com User comments have not been received at this time. Please contact the FAQ editor if you have used this product and can comment. Visual SourceSafe SourceSafe provides for true project level configuration control. In 1995, SourceSafe was taken over by Microsoft and re-named. According to their sales office, Microsoft added conversion utilities from Delta and PVCS. The 4.0 release includes support for long filenames and UNC paths, a tab dialog for setting options, localization into 5 languages, a Windows95 look and feel, and tight integration into Visual Basic, Visual C, Visual Test, and Fortran PowerStation. A Mac version is also available from Microsoft. It has a very nice model for setting up multiple versions of a project. The key commands are the share, separate, merge, links, and paths commands. Rather than using numbers to branch, such as version 2.3.6.1 in SCCS, a logical release or customer name can be used to implement the same construct. SourceSafe also runs on many platforms so it can be used for a client/server project where coding is being done on a Windows PC using Visual Basic, and on a UNIX workstation using C. It is very competitively priced and very easy to install and configure. The Microsoft System Journal (May, 1993) named SourceSafe as the best Windows based configuration mangement tool. The SourceSafe label command can be used to take a snapshot of the entire project, assign that version a name. The operation is rapid, even if there are 2000 programs in the project. Since SourceSafe was originally written for the PC, the UNIX versions had some drawbacks. For example, there was no X-Windows GUI. Reportedly, UNIX versions will be available "soon" under agreement with a company called Mainsoft and that version will include a GUI. Other reported problems were that a user can only be assigned one project at one time. It does set the errno flag appropriately, however. SourceSafe security is not very elaborate; it only has 4 levels of security: read-only, checkout, add, and destroy. This may be sufficient for some projects, but not for others. SourceSafe does not deal with project building (interfacing with Makefiles and compiling, for example). It also does not interface with a problem tracking tool, although this is in the works. A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.microsoft.com/ssafe/ Voodoo Voodoo is a version management tool for the management of projects in which files are created in numerous versions. Since Voodoo is capable of managing arbitrary files, the program can be employed for more than just the organization of software projects in a narrow sense (program development). Voodoo allows both variant and revision control, and it manages not only variants and revisions of single files, but of a whole software project (multi files, multi users, multi variants, access rights, ...). The tool offers a graphical user interface. A lite version of Voodoo is being distributed on a low cost shareware basis. The current version is available from the vendor's ftp-server at: ftp.swe.uni-linz.ac.at in /pub/voodoo The full (commercial) version of Voodoo is being distributed world-wide by UNI Software Plus. A supplier WWW site is available at http://www.unisoft.co.at/e/products/voodoo.html 7. Tools Related To Configuration Management Embedded In Other Tools Many of the large and expensive case-tools have a version control mechanism embedded within them. It may be sufficient to use such a tool. Merge Right Merge Right is not a full fledged version or configuration management tool, but it addresses one of the most important parts of such systems, support for management and integration of multiple versions and releases. While Merge Right does not provide check-in and check-out it is designed to work closely with other tools that do: integrations for RCS and SCCS are contributed, and integrations to Continuus/CM and Atherton Technology Software BackPlane are supported by those vendors. Integrations to other CM tools (Atria ClearCase, TeamOne TeamNet, etc.) and even custom and internal tools are easy - even if files are versioned only by different names or extensions. Merge Right is available from: Prescient Software, Inc. 3494 Yuba Avenue; San Jose, CA 95117-2967; E-mail: mcgregor@netcom.com tel: 408-985-1824; fax: 408-985-1936 Non-Software Tools There are a number of version management tools on the market which address areas other than software development. Since these do not include the capability to "build" software, they were not considered for this project. If, however, you have a project which is independent of software development, it may more sense to consider one of those tools rather than force-fit that project into the same tool being used for software. Some examples of such tools are: o Data Management and Control Software (DMCS) by by Structural Dynamics Research Corporation (SDRC); Milford, OH; 513-576-2400 o ERA by Salinas Technology; Montreal, Canada; tel.: 514-369-4161 o Implementor by Golden Coast Software; 15932 W. State Road 84; Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 33326; tel: 305-389-7848 o Integrated Document Control System (IDoCS) by Micro Engineering Solutions Inc.; Meriden, CT; tel.: 203-630-3630 o Relational Document Manager (RDM) by Interleaf, Inc.; 9 Hillside Ave.; Waltham, Massachusetts 02154; tel.: 617-290-0710 There are many other such tools. Check the appropriate industry periodicals for additional listings. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. CM Tools With World Wide Web Sites As the popularity and accessibility of the World Wide Web (WWW) has grown, tool vendors and dedicated users have begun providing tool information on their WWW servers. The content may vary widely, and some will contain significant marketing information, rather than technical details. On any particular attempt, network traffic, server traffic, or server outages may prevent access to the information. All servers may not be accessible from all sites. The CM related WWW servers which have been reported to this FAQ editor are: -*Vendor/Supplier WWW Servers* o Aide-de-Camp information from True Software at http://www.truesoft.com o CCC/Harvest information from Platinum Technology at http://www.platinum.com/ and some still at http://www.softool.com/ o ClearCase information from Atria Software at http://www.atria.com/ o CMVC information from IBM at http://fnctsrv0.chips.ibm.com/products/ppc/Developers/ppctools-62.html o CMZ information from CERN at http://asdwww.cern.ch/cmz/ o Continuus/CM information from Continuus Software at http://www.continuus.com/ o Control-CS information from Network Concepts at http://www.netwkconcept.com/ o Corporate RCS information from Thompson Automation Software at http://www.tasoft.com/~thompson/rcs.html o CVS support from Cyclic Software at http://www.cyclic.com/ o DevMan information from VNP Software at http://www.vnp.com/DevMan o DRCS information from OpenSource at http://www.opensource.com/Software/Development/DRCS.html o Endevor/WSX products by Computer Associates Intnl. at http://www.cai.com o Incremental Configuration Engine (ICE) developed by The Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, which solicits user's comments; see http://www.cs.tu-bs.de/softech/software/ice_e.html for details. o MKS Source Integrity information from Mortice Kern Systems at http://www.mks.com o P3 information from P3 Software at http://www.p3.com o PCMS information from SQL at http://www.sql.com/pcms.html o Quma Version Control System (QVCS) information from Jim Voris at http://www.clark.net/pub/jimv/qvcsman.html o Razor - Version Control and Problem Tracking by Tower Concepts at http://www.tower.com o Revision Control Engine (RCE) by Xcc Software at http://www.xcc-ka.de o Product Configuration Management (PCM) by Tesseract Technologies at ftp://lia.co.za/pub/tesseract/tsrhome.htm o PVCS by Intersolv, Inc. at http://www.intersolv.com o SABLIME by AT&T at http://www.att.com/stc/sablime/SABLIME.html o Software Configuration Library Manager (SCLM) by IBM Corp. at http://booksrv2.raleigh.ibm.com/ispf/ o SoftBench CM by Hewlett-Packard at http://hpcc998.external.hp.com:80/sesd/products/softcm/main.html o Source Code Manager information from UniPress Software Inc at http://www.unipress.com/cat/scm.html o Version Control System (VCS) information from Diamond Optimum Systems at http://www.DiamondOS.com o Visual SourceSafe information from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/ssafe/ o VOODOO information from UNI Soft at http://www.unisoft.co.at/e/products/voodoo.html -*User Information WWW Servers* o AllChange information at http://gille.loria.fr:7000/cgi-bin/cm/wilma/ccmt.817848747.html o Concurrent Version System (CVS) - France at http://www.loria.fr/~molli/cvs-index.html o ShapeTools information at http://www.cs.tu-berlin.de/~shape/index.html -*Consultant Information WWW Servers* Timefold(tm) at http://www.timefold.com/ and its page of ClearCase Service Providers at http://www.timefold.com/ccspin.html Additional CM related information available on the WWW is listed in section 1.7, Where else can I look for configuration management information?, in the "General Questions" portion (a separate posting) of this FAQ. If you are aware of other WWW Servers which should be added to this list (or any which should be retired), please notify the FAQ editor. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------- End Of This Document------------- (This message does not represent an official position of Honeywell Inc.) -- +----------------------------------+----------------------------------+ |Dave Eaton | e-mail: dwe@eng.iac.honeywell.com| |Honeywell Inc. - IAC | FAX: (602)313-4064 | |16404 N Black Canyon Highway | voice: (602)313-5094 | |Phoenix, AZ 85023 | HED: AZ15/2E8 | +----------------------------------+----------------------------------+