I have some very simple use cases[1] for adding some version control capabilities to a product I'm working on. My product uses simple, text (UTF-8) based scripts that are independent of one another. I would like to "version control" these scripts on behalf of my users. By version control, I mean *very-simple* version control with no branching or merging - just the ability to store, list and restore a specific version of a file. The data store should be a local file with the ability to upsize to a multi-user database in the future.
I'm looking for recommendations on possible solutions: 1. Use an existing version control utility. There are lots of options here(!), any recommendations on a light weight, open source one that xcopy installs under Windows with lots of command line options? 2. Interface to a hosted version control system (SaaS) that provides a RESTful API. Any recommendations here? 3. Build this capability myself using Python and Python's DBI layer to store files in a local SQLite database at first (but with the ability to upsize to a real client server database in the future). Seems like a fun project to work on, but also smells like I'd be re-inventing the wheel with very little value added other than simpler deployment? Any suggestions appreciated. Malcolm [1] Here's my use cases: 1. Check a file in with optional comment and username; ideally get a version number that can be used to reference this specific check-in in the future. 2. Get a history listing of all checkins for a specific file (version number, timestamp, file size, user, comment) 3. Check out a specific version of a file by version number. 4. Delete checked-in versions by version number, date range, and/or username. 5. (Optional) Diff 2 versions of a file by version number and return diff in richly formatted format that visually shows changes via color and font effects (strikethru) (I'm thinking of using BeyondCompare for this if not present in a simple version control tool) -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
