Question

I normally use Git for my projects at school and other personal projects. For an internship, we have to use an internal source control system that’s very centralized (it seems to be very similar to the workflow of subversion from what I’ve been reading). However, having never used a centralized VCS, I don’t really quite know the best workflow for that. How will using a centralized VCS affect my workflow and what are the best practices for using it?

Answer 1

That will be slower (because all operations are distant) and everything you’ll commit will be available to everybody immediately (as soon as they update), but you probably won’t find so many problems.

You’ll probably have to abandon the idea of using branchs, so be prepared to use configurations or small hacks (env variables) instead. Try not to rename or move files, as this is generally costly and breaks history in old versionning systems.

Don’t be afraid : it’s slower, less powerful, but also simpler and easier. And you can use git locally if you want as you just have to exclude the “.git” directory from commits (and, if possible, only commit while in your master branch).

Just check it’s not a super old system in which you have to centrally lock files (take ownership) before you can change them.