NationMaster - Encyclopedia: BitKeeper

BitKeeper is a software tool for revision control (configuration management, SCM, etc.) of computer source code. A sophisticated distributed system, BitKeeper competes largely against other professional systems such as Rational ClearCase and Perforce. BitKeeper is produced by BitMover Inc., a privately held company based in Campbell, California and owned by CEO Larry McVoy, who had previously designed TeamWare. Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ... Revision control (also known as version control, source control or (source) code management (SCM)) is the management of multiple revisions of the same unit of information. ... In information technology and telecommunications, the term configuration management or configuration control has the following meanings: The management of security features and assurances through control of changes made to hardware, software, firmware, documentation, test, test fixtures and test documentation of an automated information system, throughout the development and operational life... SCM is an acronym for Software Configuration Management, and relates to configuration management (CM). ... Source code (commonly just source or code) is any series of statements written in some human-readable computer programming language. ... Rational ClearCase is a software tool for revision control (configuration management, SCM etc) of source code and other software development assets. ... Perforce is a commercial Revision Control (RC) system. ... Campbell is a city located in Santa Clara County, California, part of Silicon Valley. ... Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is the job of having the ultimate executive responsibility or authority within an organization or corporation. ... Larry McVoy (b. ... TeamWare (later Forte TeamWare, then Forte Code Management Software) is a source code revision control system made by Sun Microsystems. ...

BitKeeper builds upon many of the TeamWare concepts. Its key selling point is the ease with which distributed development teams can keep their own local source repositories and still work with the central repository.

BitKeeper is proprietary software and is normally sold or leased (as part of a support package) to medium or large corporations. The precise cost varies with individual customer, but the per-developer cost is estimated to be over one thousand dollars. Proprietary software is software with restrictions on using, copying and modifying as enforced by the proprietor. ...

History

BitMover used to provide access to the system for certain open source or free software projects, the most famous (and controversial) of which was the source code of the Linux kernel. The license for the "community" version of BitKeeper had allowed for developers to use the tool at no cost for open source or free software projects, provided those developers did not participate in the development of a competing tool (such as CVS, GNU Arch, Subversion or ClearCase) for the duration of their usage of BitKeeper plus one year. This restriction applied regardless of whether the competing tool is open/free or proprietary. This version of BitKeeper also required that certain meta-information about changes be stored on computer servers operated by Bitmover (www.openlogging.org), an addition that makes it impossible for community version users to run projects of which Bitmover is unaware. Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... Clockwise from top: The logo of the GNU Project (the GNU head), the Linux kernel mascot Tux the Penguin, and the FreeBSD daemon Free software is a term coined by Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation[1] to refer to software that can be used, studied, and modified without... The Linux kernel is a Unix-like operating system kernel. ... The Concurrent Versions System (CVS), also known as the Concurrent Versioning System, is an open-source version control system invented and developed by Dick Grune in the 1980s. ... In computing, GNU arch is a software revision control system that is part of the GNU Project and licensed under the GNU General Public License. ... Subversion is a revision control system which allows computer software to be developed in an incremental and controlled fashion by a distributed group of programmers. ... Rational ClearCase is a software tool for revision control (configuration management, SCM etc) of source code and other software development assets. ...

License concerns

The decision made in 2002 to use BitKeeper for Linux kernel development was a controversial one. Some, notably GNU Project founder Richard Stallman, expressed concern about proprietary tools being used on a flagship free project. While project leader Linus Torvalds and other core developers adopted BitKeeper, several key developers (including Linux veteran Alan Cox) refused to do so, citing the Bitmover licence, and voicing concern that the project was ceding some control to a proprietary developer. To mitigate these concerns, Bitmover added gateways which allowed limited interoperation between the Linux BitKeeper servers (maintained by Bitmover) and developers using CVS and Subversion. Even after this addition, flamewars^[1] occasionally broke out on the Linux kernel mailing list, often involving key kernel developers and Bitmover CEO Larry McVoy, who is also a Linux developer. For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... The GNU logo, drawn by Etienne Suvasa The GNU Project was announced in 1983 by Richard Stallman. ... Richard Matthew Stallman (often abbreviated as RMS) (born March 16, 1953) is a software freedom activist, hacker, and software developer. ... Linus Benedict Torvalds ; born December 28, 1969 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish software engineer best known for initiating the development of the Linux kernel. ... Alan Cox at FOSS.IN/2005 Alan Cox (born 1968) is a computer programmer heavily involved in the development of the Linux kernel since its early days (1991). ... Flaming is the act of posting messages that are deliberately hostile and insulting, usually in the social context of a discussion board (usually on the Internet). ... The Linux kernel mailing list (LKML) is the main electronic mailing list for Linux kernel development[1][2], where majority of the announcements, discussions, debates, and flame wars over the kernel take place[3]. Many other mailing lists exist to discuss the different subsystems and ports of the Linux kernel... Larry McVoy (b. ...

Pricing change

In April 2005, BitMover announced that it would stop providing a version of BitKeeper free of charge to the community, giving as the reason the efforts of Andrew "Tridge" Tridgell, a developer employed by OSDL on an unrelated project, to develop a client which would show the metadata (data about revisions, possibly including differences between versions) instead of only the most recent version. Being able to see metadata and compare past versions is one of the core features of all version-control systems but was not available to anyone without a commercial BitKeeper license, significantly inconveniencing most Linux kernel developers. Although BitMover decided to provide free commercial BitKeeper licenses to some kernel developers, it refused to give or sell licenses to anyone employed by OSDL, including Linus Torvalds and Andrew Morton, placing OSDL developers in the same position other kernel developers were in. The Git project was launched with the intent of becoming the Linux kernel's source configuration management software, and was eventually adopted by Linux developers. 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Andrew Tridge Tridgell (born February 28, 1967) is an Australian computer programmer best known as the creator of and contributor to the Samba file server, and co-inventor of the rsync algorithm. ... The Open Source Development Lab (OSDL) is a non-profit organization supported by a global consortium dedicated to advancement of Linux, an operating system. ... Linus Benedict Torvalds ; born December 28, 1969 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish software engineer best known for initiating the development of the Linux kernel. ... Andrew Morton is a Linux kernel developer. ... Git is a distributed revision control / software configuration management project created by Linus Torvalds to manage software development of the Linux kernel. ...

End of support for the "Free Use" version was officially July 1, 2005 and users were required to switch to the commercial version or change version control system by then. Commercial users are also required not to produce any competing tools: in October, 2005, McVoy contacted a customer using commercially licensed BitKeeper demanding that an employee of the customer stop contributing to the Mercurial project, a GPL source management tool. Bryan O'Sullivan, the employee responded, "To avoid any possible perception of conflict, I have volunteered to Larry that as long as I continue to use the commercial version of BitKeeper, I will not contribute to the development of Mercurial.". ^[2] July 1 is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Mercurial is a cross-platform, distributed source management tool for software developers. ...

Contents

History

License concerns

Pricing change

See also

Footnotes

External links

Contents

History GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");

License concerns

Pricing change

See also

Footnotes

External links

History