Essential CVS and over 400,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle – Amazon’s new wireless reading device. Learn more

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
More Buying Choices
43 used & new from $9.98

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Essential CVS (Essentials)
 
 
Start reading Essential CVS on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)

List Price: $44.99
Price: $29.69 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
You Save: $15.30 (34%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Want it delivered Thursday, February 11? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
29 new from $21.99 14 used from $9.98

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition $9.55  
Paperback $39.95  
Paperback, November 20, 2006 $29.69  

Best Value

Buy Essential CVS (Essentials) and get Pragmatic Version Control: Using Subversion (The Pragmatic Starter Kit Series)(2nd Edition) at an additional 5% off Amazon.com's everyday low price.

Essential CVS (Essentials) + Pragmatic Version Control: Using Subversion (The Pragmatic Starter Kit Series)(2nd Edition)
Buy Together Today: $51.61

Show availability and shipping details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought


Editorial Reviews

Review

"Essential CVS does what you might think would be a small job more effectively and more comprehensively than I would have imagined, even allowing for the generally high standard of O'Reilly books. Apart from covering the boring stuff well, it has two big advantages over the Web: it backs up its discussion of various CVS functions with wise advice and policies on why and how to use these facilities - plus it provides readable (and, presumably, tested) examples. Computing sciences prizes abstraction and generalities; computing practice should, like this book, be informed by concrete specifics and sensible rules-of-thumb." - Damian Counsell, news@UK, December 2003 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description

This easy-to-follow reference shows a variety of professionals how to use the Concurrent Versions System (CVS), the open source tool that lets you manage versions of anything stored in files. Ideal for software developers tracking different versions of the same code, this new edition has been expanded to explain common usages of CVS for system administrators, project managers, software architects, user-interface (UI) specialists, graphic designers and others.

Current for version 1.12, Essential CVS, 2nd Edition offers an overview of CVS, explains the core concepts, and describes the commands that most people use on a day-to-day basis. For those who need to get up to speed rapidly, the book's Quickstart Guide shows you how to build and use a basic CVS repository with the default settings and a minimum of extras. You'll also find:

  • A full command reference that details all aspects of customizing CVS for automation, logging, branching, merging documents, and creating alerts
  • Examples and descriptions of the most commonly used options for each command
  • Why and when to tag or branch your project, tagging before releases, and using branching to create a bugfix version of a project
  • Details on the systems used in CVS to permit multiple developers to work on the same project without loss of data

An entire section devoted to document version management and project management includes ways to import and export projects, work with remote repositories, and shows how to fix things that can go wrong when using CVS. You'll find more screenshots in this edition as well as examples of using graphical CVS clients to run CVS commands. Essential CVS also includes a FAQ that answers common queries in the CVS mailing list to get you up and running with this system quickly and painlessly.


Product Details

  • Paperback: 432 pages
  • Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 2 edition (November 20, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0596527039
  • ISBN-13: 978-0596527037
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #314,051 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

More About the Author

Jennifer Vesperman
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Visit Amazon's Jennifer Vesperman Page

Inside This Book (learn more)

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Essential CVS (Essentials)
88% buy the item featured on this page:
Essential CVS (Essentials) 4.2 out of 5 stars (17)
$29.69
Pragmatic Version Control Using CVS
5% buy
Pragmatic Version Control Using CVS 4.1 out of 5 stars (10)
$21.86
Version Control with Subversion
3% buy
Version Control with Subversion 4.7 out of 5 stars (26)
$26.39
CVS Pocket Reference, Second Edition
2% buy
CVS Pocket Reference, Second Edition 2.6 out of 5 stars (11)
$9.95

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(3)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

 

Customer Reviews

17 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:
 (10)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (17 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Great start to CVS, March 26, 2004
By Matthew Hunter "Technology Geek" (Blacksburg, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Essential CVS (Paperback)
I administer our CVS server at work. We use CVS in the traditional way, to manage source code from a group of people working together on multiple projects. Before this book, I didn't have a single reference that explained all the basic functionality of CVS. Now, when someone has a question, I can pass along this book for a quick answer.

Most of the things you'll do with CVS are covered in sufficient detail in this book. I do agree with the reviewer who mentioned this is not the perfect reference for some tasks - like merging branches. This book will, however, give you all the background information you'll need so that you can effectively research complex topics like this on the web. The title is appropriate - 'essential CVS.' It's not 'everything there is to know about CVS' - and that's a strength of the book. It makes it small enough that the average developer can read the 'quickstart,' and have a basic understanding of how things work. They can then use the more detailed chapters to gain further information. Only the CVS administrator will need a little more. Even for them, this book will be a handy reference.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars An effective coverage of CVS, December 7, 2003
By Foti Massimo (Vezia (Switzerland)) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Essential CVS (Paperback)
Being part of the "Essential" series, this book doesn't pretend to be the ultimate reference on the subject, but it delivers an effective coverage of CVS. The author start from scratch and goes up to explain more advanced features like tagging and branching. In my opinion the way chapters are organized is not ideal and there is some redundancy here and there, notwithstanding these shortcomings, I would recommend it. Just be advised the whole book is totally Unix centric and all the samples cover only command-line usage.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Good book if you're a CVS user..., January 7, 2004
By Thomas Duff "Duffbert" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
This review is from: Essential CVS (Paperback)
If you're looking for a low-cost entry into the world of version control software, the open source CVS package is a very logical choice. But like most open source packages, the documentation is less than perfect if you want something more than just a reference manual for learning purposes. It's at this point you need a book that explains a bit more about the why's of what you need to do. This book fills that gap nicely.

The target audience is both users and administrators of the system. Vesperman starts out with an explanation of what version management and source control systems are, and then goes into the usage of CVS for those different groups. And if you are thinking that CVS is just for managing code, think again. CVS can be used to manage any document types, such as code, documentation, images, etc.

If you're using Websphere Application Development Studio (WSAD), the CVS package has an interface built right in. You select that option during WSAD installation, and the right perspectives are added to your environment. You will still need to have a CVS server set up somewhere to manage the source files, and this book will be very helpful in aiding you during that process.

Since CVS is based on the Unix platform, all the examples in the book are set up to use command line interfaces to the functions. Vesperman uses plenty of scripts to show you how to accomplish all the functions, which is great. In my case, I'll be using WSAD to work with CVS as a developer, so many of those examples were wasted on me. Still, the concepts behind CVS and the general capabilities of the package are covered well, so a read-through on this book will benefit you either way.

For Notes/Domino developers, there is no interface you can use for this package. You could, if you wanted, check in your .NSF files and use CVS to manage the version control. You'd lose some of the benefits of CVS like file comparison, but it's still better than having no version control at all. There are non-CVS systems out there for Notes/Domino content management, and you would probably derive more benefit from those packages than trying to use CVS in this case.

Conclusion
If you are moving into the WSAD world for Java development, check out CVS for version management. If you do decide to go with CVS, get a copy of this book to supplement the official documentation. Recommended.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book to establish version control
This is a good book if you are looking to establish version control with CVS. It covers the most common usage and the advanced usages are presented in an understandable format.
Published on December 30, 2007 by you are not alone

5.0 out of 5 stars VERY VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!
Are you a software developer tracking different versions of the same code? If you are, then this book is for you. Read more
Published on June 7, 2007 by John R. Vacca

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Overview and Guide
Every developer and person interested in using version control should have this book on their shelf. Read more
Published on May 10, 2007 by J. Brutto

5.0 out of 5 stars A complete reference and guide
Jennifer Vesperman's ESSENTIAL CVS 2nd Edition is a complete reference and guide to managing large numbers of documents. Read more
Published on February 3, 2007 by Midwest Book Review

5.0 out of 5 stars Well written, good coverage of CVS
This is an excellent introduction if you are new revision control or CVS. The configuration and command reference sections are helpful if you are an experienced CVS user. Read more
Published on December 12, 2006 by M. Siddalingaiah

4.0 out of 5 stars njbulitka
I found this book to give a fairly good description of CVS. It gives a detailed description of CVS and touches on the various GUI frontends that are available. Read more
Published on April 15, 2005 by njbulitka

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Clear on the Merging Branches
For me the quick way to review a CVS book is to read it's sections on merging branches. It was covered in about two pages in this book and wholely inadequate. Read more
Published on February 10, 2004 by Samuel Smith

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Book
I've been all over the Internet trying to find how to setup a brand new repository. My book came. I went to chapter 2. After a few pages, everything was done easily. Read more
Published on November 21, 2003 by Geoffrey S. Robinson

4.0 out of 5 stars A good reference
I have been working on and off with CVS for years now mostly as a user, but now also as a repository admin. That was also the reason why I bought this book. Read more
Published on November 9, 2003

4.0 out of 5 stars Very informative, but not very well organized
Essential CVS by Jennifer Vesperman is a very informative book on CVS ever published. Most developers working with CVS - Concurrent Versions System - will appreciate tips, tricks... Read more
Published on September 5, 2003 by sherzodr

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Discussion Replies Latest Post
C# or Java? 66 17 days ago
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   



So You'd Like to...


Create a guide

Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)


Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject

 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.