How do you store your code and files for use across machines

Question

I am interested to know what strategies people have to keep their code AND work versioned across multiple machines. For example I have a desktop PC running XP, a macbook running OSX and VMWare running XP as well as a sales laptop for running product demos. I want to know how I can always have these in sync. Subversion is a possibility for this but i find it less useful for dealing with binary files - maybe I have overlooked something here. What do other people use as they must have similar issues? Do they keep all files on a USB drive and never on the local file system. I am not always online so remote storage is not really an option.

Answer 1

Subversion works just great in our office for sales, project management, design and code files.

Answer 2

I put important builds in Source Control -- it's fine for binary files.

Answer 3

I use mercurial for keeping my workfiles in sync. It's not great for big binaries either, but it lets me commit without being online and makes it easy to branche/merge different versions.

Answer 4

For most files including source code we do use Subversion. It's really great.

If there are larger files oder Project management related documents which are used by people who have no access to the source control system, we use Microsoft SharePoint. This is especially usefull if you are working with people outside your company.

Answer 5

I keep all my work encrypted on a USB stick. It also has a bootable Linux partition so I can get into a sensible working development environment from any machine, such as a borrowed work laptop with some software to carry to a conference that I can't move to my own machine.

When you have more people working on the same code, I'd put it in a central Subversion repository and set up scripts (in Windows you could use the autorun feature for the USB stick) to synchronize things between the repo and a USB stick always carried along.

Answer 6

Like others have said, subversion is your best bet for code. For binary files/non-code, I find DropBox to be very convenient. It stores revisions, has undelete, easy sharing, etc. basically an automagic, web-friendly SVN. Not having to think about it is the biggest plus for me.

Answer 7

I store my dotfiles (.zshrc, etc) in a Git repository that is checked out into my homedir. I also do the same for the LaTeX files comprising my classwork.

Answer 8

Ah the old VCS Debate.

The simplest way to share/sync Source Code is to use some sort of VCS (Version Control System) - this gives you plenty of benefits over being able to keep things synced. There are many VCSs out there, I personally use Bazaar-NG and Subversion - though I'd suggest you trial a few and see how you feel using them.

For syncing general files, espescially if it's only for yourself, I'd reccomend using "DropBox" (http://www.getdropbox.com/) - I've been using this for the last week or so, and it makes syncing up my multiple machines with a certain set of files so much more easy.

It also has some extra features that'd probably be useful for collaboration too, but I haven't tried those out yet.

Answer 9

FolderShare (http://foldershare.com) is also nice for syncing files. I use it to keep documents, etc. in sync between my laptop and my desktop, for example.

Of course, for code especially this doesn't obviate the need for source control.

Answer 10

The main point I see reg. using SVN as central repository for binary files, is that if those files are of any reasonable size, they will take some time to be synced over the net. So if you don't want to spend time waiting for your files coming in over the net, here the building blocks for an other mirroring solution:

• MirrorFolder

No better tool to be found when it comes to syncing a Data-Tanks with several other "local" copies.

• TrueCrypt

Use this to encrypt your USB-Tank just in case you drop it somewhere.