[Israel.pm] Reflections on Version Control Systems (VCSes) vs. Databases

[David Baird]

Hi Shlomi,

First, don't confuse data structure with database.

Git utilizes an append-only object database. reference:
https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Git
Perforce uses a database, reference:
http://kb.perforce.com/article/720/database-internals

Sawyer may find he has to use one of those systems in the future. It
would be a good idea to be familiar with how databases help keep track
of version control metadata, and especially how to backup a database,
if one wants to administrate such a system.

It seems that Mercurial does not utilize a database, keeping metadata
in text files, but that's a moot point in a Perl forum.

Long long long ago I administrated PVCS, with no database required.
Although it was easy to recover lost data through the file system and
file backup, it was not as reliable as every VCS I administrated
afterwards which did utilize a database.

Just a quick answer,
David