A VersionControlSystem that uses inter-repository replication as the mechanism for collaboration. Each participant has a full copy of the repository and can exchange changesets freely with any other participant. Examples include Git, Mercurial, Bazaar and darcs.

This stands in contrast to a centralised VersionControlSystem, where there is only one repository stored on a central server, which serves as the hub for any collaboration: participants must push commits to this server and must fetch others' commits from it. This has many drawbacks:

• Inability to work offline (with no access to the central server). While you can keep a working copy of the source tree, there is no way to maintain a private history of commits and branches.
• Inability to exchange changesets between different groups working on different (or related) parts of the source tree, unless these changesets are made part of the official history recorded by the central server.

Those accustomed to working with centralized VCSes may view the above as virtues rather than drawbacks; project-management culture has a lot to do with how the differences are perceived.

EricRaymond's essay Understanding Version Control is a good backgrounder on VCS concepts.

CategoryVersionControl