Is there a universal version control client?

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+2 Q:

Is there a universal version control client?

Is there a version control client that would support more VCSs? I'm mainly interested in Subversion, git and Mercurial, but others like TFS would be nice too. Like a bare Eclipse with just the right plugins installed?

Update: I'm looking for a GUI client although a command line one would be technically interesting too.

+1 A:

Both Git and Mercurial have adapters that let them talk to Mercurial, Git, and Subversion.

I don't know of any implementations of a TFS client other than Microsoft's.

Greg Hewgill 2010-05-17 22:04:03

+2 A:

Amp's goals are to support all major repository formats, all major network protocols, all major workflows and all major commandline interfaces. However, at the moment it only supports Mercurial. Support for Git, Bazaar, Subversion, CVS and darcs is planned.

As for TFS: is there even an open specification for it? If not, then implementing another client would basically amount to massive amounts of reverse engineering. Judging by other attempts at reverse engineering Microsoft protocols, formats and products, we can assume that this is going to take at least 10 years.

Jörg W Mittag 2010-05-18 00:17:05

Is that still true (about reverse-engineering MS protocols)? I recall a year or two ago, they released a huge pile of documents that described their network protocols. I wonder whether TFS is included in that.

Greg Hewgill 2010-05-18 01:22:37

@Greg Hewgill: I just looked through the list of documents that were released as a result of the EC ruling, but TFS isn't in there. It makes sense: the ruling was based on abuse of a monopoly, but TFS doesn't *have* a monopoly. So, the protocols that were released are mostly Windows stuff: CIFS, SMB, BITS, UPnP, some Windows and Windows Media Player file formats, also Exchange and SQL Server. But TFS's market share is small compared to either CVS or some of the commercial competitors, so there's really no grounds for an anti-competition case there.

Jörg W Mittag 2010-05-18 03:07:36

@Greg Hewgill: In fact, Microsoft has gotten wise to the problem: in the one case where TFS *could* be considered a monopoly, CodePlex, they also offer a Subversion bridge.

Jörg W Mittag 2010-05-18 03:13:34

I believe there was a TeamPrise client (3rd party client) before it got acquired by Microsoft. So it's probably not completely closed although I don't know the technical details.

Borek 2010-05-18 14:19:10

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Is there a universal version control client?

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