I'm a fan of SVN and I am comfortable setting up my own svn repository, but I'm wondering if there are better options than creating a separate repository.
Basically I'm just looking for a way to keep track of or roll back changes before my code is reviewed and checked in to the main repository (SourceSafe).
Note: I can't control which version control system we use (would prefer svn or svk), so stuck with SourceSafe for the main repository.
Git is a good source control system that is distributed in nature, so you can have a version on your dev box that can merge with a server copy.
Most distributed version control systems unify the concepts of working copy and repository. In other words: the working copy is the repository.
If you want to put a source tree under version control, in most DVCSs it's as simple as
cd $PROJECTgit init # Create the repositorygit add . # Recursively add all files in the directory to the repositorygit commit # Make the initial commitI believe the commands are exactly the same for Mercurial (with hg instead of git) and very similar for Bazaar, Darcs, Monotone, Codeville, Arch, and most other DVCSs.
Check this article:
Creating a local Subversion repository with TortoiseSVN
With TortoiseSVN it's very easy and painless to create a local repositories on your local file systems.
I am developing a product that may be perfect for you.
It's called "Transactor Code Agent". It's designed to automatically maintain local source code history.
You point it at the folders where you keep your code, and it automatically makes a backup every time you change a file. You can diff versions, rollback changes, and can even create named "snapshots" (fixed bug 1234, implemented feature y, etc.) to make it easier to restore back to specific points in time.
Because it's automatic, you don't have to worry about manually committing your local changes.
Everything just works.
I put some detailed information about it in this post:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/348272/simplest-source-control-ever-what-do-you-use#348385
It should be releasing sometime in Feb. I'm looking for beta testers. The beta should be opening up sometime in January. If you are interested let me know.
If you're looking for a solution with minimal setup time, I would recommend looking at a distributed version control system.
This will allow you to check your code into a local repository without setting up servers and the like.
Examples of distributed version control systems include:
Perforce is free for two users http://www.perforce.com/perforce/evaldemo.html