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Decisions about Git, Mercurial, and Plastic SCM
Kamaldeep Singh
CEO at Zhoustify · | 14 upvotes · 78.7K views
SVN is much simpler than git for the simple stuff (checking in files and updating them when everyone's online), and much more complex than git for the complicated stuff (branching and merging). Or put another way, git's learning curve is steep up front, and then increases moderately as you do weird things; SVN's learning curve is very shallow up front and then increases rapidly.
If you're storing large files, if you're not branching, if you're not storing source code, and if your team is happy with SVN and the workflow you have, I'd say you should stay on SVN.
If you're writing source code with a relatively modern development practice (developers doing local builds and tests, pre-commit code reviews, preferably automated testing, preferably some amount of open-source code), you should move to git for two reasons: first, this style of working inherently requires frequent branching and merging, and second, your ability to interact with outside projects is easier if you're all comfortable with git instead of snapshotting the outside project into SVN.
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Learn MorePros of Git
Pros of Mercurial
Pros of Plastic SCM
Pros of Git
- Distributed version control system1.4K
- Efficient branching and merging1.1K
- Fast959
- Open source845
- Better than svn726
- Great command-line application368
- Simple306
- Free291
- Easy to use232
- Does not require server222
- Distributed27
- Small & Fast22
- Feature based workflow18
- Staging Area15
- Most wide-spread VSC13
- Role-based codelines11
- Disposable Experimentation11
- Frictionless Context Switching7
- Data Assurance6
- Efficient5
- Just awesome4
- Github integration3
- Easy branching and merging3
- Compatible2
- Flexible2
- Possible to lose history and commits2
- Rebase supported natively; reflog; access to plumbing1
- Light1
- Team Integration1
- Fast, scalable, distributed revision control system1
- Easy1
- Flexible, easy, Safe, and fast1
- CLI is great, but the GUI tools are awesome1
- It's what you do1
- Phinx0
Pros of Mercurial
- A lot easier to extend than git18
- Easy-to-grasp system with nice tools17
- Works on windows natively without cygwin nonsense13
- Written in python11
- Free9
- Fast8
- Better than Git6
- Best GUI6
- Better than svn4
- Hg inc2
- Good user experience2
- TortoiseHg - Unified free gui for all platforms2
- Consistent UI2
- Easy-to-use2
- Native support to all platforms2
- Free to use1
Pros of Plastic SCM
- Wanna do Branch per Task Dev? Plastic rocks it8
- No Size limite4
- File Locking2
- Simple, easy to use interfaces. Resilient and solid2
- Very fast1
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Cons of Git
Cons of Mercurial
Cons of Plastic SCM
Cons of Git
- Hard to learn16
- Inconsistent command line interface11
- Easy to lose uncommitted work9
- Worst documentation ever possibly made8
- Awful merge handling5
- Unexistent preventive security flows3
- Rebase hell3
- Ironically even die-hard supporters screw up badly2
- When --force is disabled, cannot rebase2
- Doesn't scale for big data1
Cons of Mercurial
- Track single upstream only0
- Does not distinguish between local and remote head0
Cons of Plastic SCM
- Always uses automatic conflict resolution first1
- Adds files with only changed timestamp to pending1
- Keyboard shortcuts are lacking1
- Can't place windows next to each other to save space1
- No dark theme1
- Doesn't have file staging1
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What is Git?
Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency.
What is Mercurial?
Mercurial is dedicated to speed and efficiency with a sane user interface. It is written in Python. Mercurial's implementation and data structures are designed to be fast. You can generate diffs between revisions, or jump back in time within seconds.
What is Plastic SCM?
Plastic SCM is a distributed version control designed for big projects.
It excels on branching and merging, graphical user interfaces, and can also deal with large files and even file-locking (great for game devs).
It includes "semantic" features like refactor detection to ease diffing complex refactors.
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What are some alternatives to Git, Mercurial, and Plastic SCM?
GitHub
GitHub is the best place to share code with friends, co-workers, classmates, and complete strangers. Over three million people use GitHub to build amazing things together.
SVN (Subversion)
Subversion exists to be universally recognized and adopted as an open-source, centralized version control system characterized by its reliability as a safe haven for valuable data; the simplicity of its model and usage; and its ability to support the needs of a wide variety of users and projects, from individuals to large-scale enterprise operations.
Bitbucket
Bitbucket gives teams one place to plan projects, collaborate on code, test and deploy, all with free private Git repositories. Teams choose Bitbucket because it has a superior Jira integration, built-in CI/CD, & is free for up to 5 users.
Perforce
Visibility, access control, workflow and code management for Git environments. Flexibility of collaborating on the same codebase and code reviews using any combination of Perforce and Git workflows and tools without compromise.
GitLab
GitLab offers git repository management, code reviews, issue tracking, activity feeds and wikis. Enterprises install GitLab on-premise and connect it with LDAP and Active Directory servers for secure authentication and authorization. A single GitLab server can handle more than 25,000 users but it is also possible to create a high availability setup with multiple active servers.