Original author(s) Written in C Type Version control | Repository no%20value Operating system | |
Initial release 1972; 45 years ago (1972) | ||
Source Code Control System (SCCS) is a version control system designed to track changes in the source code and other text files during the development of a software. It has functionalities like storing, updating, and recording the changes made. This allows the user to retrieve any of the previous versions using the original source code and the changes which are stored. It was originally developed at Bell Labs in 1972 by Marc Rochkind for an IBM System/370 computer running OS/360 MVT.
Contents
- History
- Background
- Composition
- SCCS Files
- Delta Table
- Control and Tracking Flags in SCCS Files
- Body of the Texts
- SCCS Basic Commands
- Create
- Edit
- Delget
- Get
- Prt
- UNIX SCCS Versions
- Jrg Schillings Fork
- Heirloom Project
- GNU Conversion Utility
- Other Version Control Systems
- References
SCCS has the following features of version control. Like, all versions are in the same file and all are accessible at any point of time. Also, a programmer can access a version module only through SCCS. The system automatically gives version number, date, time, etc. Lastly, the system automatically tracks the changes that were made by whom, when, where and why.
SCCS is also known for the sccsid string, for example:
This string contains the file name, date, and can also contain a comment. After compilation, the string can be found in binary and object files by looking for the pattern "@(#)" and can be used to determine which source code files were used during compilation. The "what" command [1] is available to automate this search for version strings.
History
In 1972, Marc Rochkind developed SCCS in SNOBOL4 at Bell Labs for an IBM System/370 computer running OS/360 MVT. It was later rewritten by him in C for UNIX, then running on a PDP-11.
The first publicly released version was SCCS version 4 from February 18, 1977. It was available with the Programmer's Workbench (PWB) edition of the operating system. Release 4 of SCCS was the first version that used a text-based history file format, earlier versions did use binary history file formats. Release 4 was no longer written or maintained by Mark Rochkind. Subsequently, SCCS was included in AT&T's commercial System III and System V distributions. It was not licensed with 32V, the ancestor to Berkeley Unix. The SCCS command set is now part of the Single UNIX Specification.
SCCS was the dominant version control system for Unix until later version control systems, notably the Revision Control System (RCS) and later CVS, gained more widespread adoption. Today, these early version control systems are generally considered obsolete, particularly in the open source community, which has largely embraced distributed version control systems. However, the SCCS file format is still used internally by a few newer version control programs, including BitKeeper and TeamWare. The latter is a frontend to SCCS. Sablime has been developed from a modified version of SCCS but uses a history file format that is incompatible with SCCS. The SCCS file format uses a storage technique called interleaved deltas (or the weave). This storage technique is now considered by many version control system developers as foundational to advanced merging and versioning techniques, such as the "Precise Codeville" ("pcdv") merge.
Apart from fixing some Year 2000 problems in 1999, there is no active development on the various UNIX vendor specific SCCS versions. In 2006, Sun Microsystems (today part of Oracle Corporation) released their Solaris version of SCCS as open source under the Common Development and Distribution License as part of their efforts to open-source Solaris.
Background
The Source Code Control System (SCCS) is a system for controlling file and history changes. Source upgrade is one of the most significant parts in modern software development. In general, software upgraded to be a new version by fixing bugs, optimizing algorithms and adding extra functions. Obviously, many software has a lot of versions，such as Java. However, additional problems occur associated with these changes.
Therefore, Source Code Control System, the most powerful weapon to solve these problems, appeared in developers' world. SCCS itself had a lot of changes during the past time.The SCCS has nine different major versions which are designed to help programmers control changes as a software. Two specific successful implementations using SCCS : PDP 11 under Unix and IBM 370 under the OS.
Composition
SCCS consists of two parts: SCCS commands and SCCS files. All basic operation(e.g., create, delete,edit) can be realized by SCCS commands. SCCS files have a unique format prefix s., which could be easily controlled by SCCS commands.
SCCS Files
An SCCS file is composed of three different parts:
Delta Table
In SCCS, a delta refers to a change of SCCS file. Deltas are stored in a delta table, so each SCCS file has its own record of changes.
Control and Tracking Flags in SCCS Files
Every operation of each SCCS file will be tracked by flags. Their functions are as below:
Body of the Texts
There are three types of control records used to keep track of insertions and deletions applied in different deltas. They are insertion control record, deletion control record and end control record. Whenevr a user changes some part of the text, a control record is inserted surrounding the change. These control records are stored in the body along with the original source code or text records.
SCCS Basic Commands
There are lots of commands that can be used in SCCS. These commands helps users to finish what they want to achieve without understanding how they worked. Also, the SCCS allows users to have access to history files. Moreover, it also provides some commands which allow them to edit, monitor and change the source files.
Create
The sccs create command uses the text of source file to create a new history file. For example:
The outputs are name, version and lines.
The create command is a macro that expands to admin to create the new history file followed by a get to retrieve the file.
Edit
Edit a specific file.
The edit command is a macro that expands to get -e.
Delget
Check in new version and get the new version from sccs.
The delget command is a macro that expands to delta to check in the new version file followed by a get to retrieve the file.
Get
The outputs are version and lines you want to get from specific file.
Prt
This command produces a report of changes you made.
UNIX SCCS Versions
Most UNIX versions include a version of SCCS, which, however, is often no longer actively developed.
Jörg Schilling's Fork
Jörg Schilling (who requested the release of SCCS in the early days of the OpenSolaris project) maintains a fork of SCCS that is based on the OpenSolaris source code. It has received major feature enhancements but remains compatible with the original SCCS versions unless using the "new project" mode.
Heirloom Project
The Heirloom Project includes a version of SCCS derived from the OpenSolaris source code and maintained between December 2006 and April 2007.
GNU Conversion Utility
GNU offers the SCCS compatible program GNU CSSC ("Compatibly Stupid Source Control"), which is occasionally used to convert SCCS archives to newer systems like CVS or Subversion; it is not a complete SCCS implementation and not recommended for use in new projects, but mostly meant for converting to a modern version control system.
Other Version Control Systems
Since the 1990s, many new version control systems have been developed and become popular that are designed for managing projects with a large number of files and that offer advanced functionality such as multi-user operation, access control, automatic building, network support, release management and distributed version control. Bitkeeper and TeamWare use the SCCS file format internally and can be considered successors to SCCS.