Version Control

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Version Control manages changes to an Artifact by identifying distinguishable revisions and preserving the relationships among those revisions.

Version Control allows an authorized user or process to:

• Identify a specific revision
• Retrieve a specific revision
• Distinguish one revision from another
• Determine the relationship between successive revisions
• Compare revisions
• Associate a change with its recorded context
• Restore or reuse an identified revision

Version Control may apply to:

• Source code
• Configuration files
• Infrastructure Configurations
• Infrastructure Blueprints
• Models
• Schemas
• Scripts
• Policy files
• Build specifications
• Documentation

Version Control differs from a Version Control System:

• Version Control is the process used to manage revisions
• A Version Control System is the system that performs Version Control

Version Control also differs from approval, release management, deployment authorization, and records retention. Those activities may use revision information produced through Version Control but establish separate controls.

process for identifying, recording, managing, and retrieving distinguishable revisions of an artifact and the relationships among those revisions

Dido Solutions, Inc. and Jackrabbit Consulting, Inc.

Version Control does not by itself establish that a revision is approved, released, deployed, authoritative, or retained for a specified period.

Version Control may preserve information such as:

• Revision identifier
• Preceding revision
• Change author
• Change timestamp
• Change description
• Repository location

The information preserved depends on the applicable Version Control process and Version Control System.

The term does not require a particular repository implementation, branching model, merge model, storage technology, or product.

Version Control assigns an identifiable revision to an Infrastructure Configuration, preserves its relationship to the preceding revision, and permits an authorized deployment workflow to retrieve the identified revision.