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Bitkeeper is a software tool for revision control ( configuration management SCM etc) of computer source code. A sophisticated distributed system, Bitkeeper competes largely against other professional systems such as Rational ClearCase and Perforce . Bitkeeper is produced by BitMover Inc., a privately held company based in San Francisco, California.Bitkeeper is a closed-source product, and is normally sold or leased (as part of a support-package) to medium or large corporations. The precise cost varies with individual customer, but the per-developer cost is estimated to be over one thousand dollars.
BitMover also allows access to the system for certain open source or free software projects, the most famous (and controversial) of which is the source code of the Linux kernel. The license for the "community" version of Bitkeeper allows for developers to use the tool at no cost for open source or free software projects, provided those developers do not participate in the development of a competing tool (such as CVS, Subversion or ClearCase). This restriction applies whether the competing tool is open/free or proprietary. This version of Bitkeeper also requires that certain meta-information about changes be stored on computer servers operated by Bitmover, an addition which means that it is impossible for users of the community version to run projects of which Bitmover is unaware.
The choice of Bitkeeper for Linux kernel development was a controversial one. Some advocates, most notably GNU founder Richard Stallman, expressed concern about proprietary tools being used on a free project. While project leader Linus Torvalds and other core developers adopted Bitkeeper, several key developers (including Linux veteran Alan Cox) refused to do so, citing the Bitmover licence, and voicing concern that the project was ceding some control to a commercial developer. To mitigate these concerns, Bitmover added gateways which allowed limited interoperation between the Linux Bitkeeper servers (maintained by Bitmover) and developers using CVS and Subversion. Even after this addition, flamewars occasionally break out on the Linux kernel mailing listThe Linux kernel mailing list (LKML is a mailing list focusing on the discussion of Linux kernel development. Many other mailing lists exist to discuss the different subsystems and ports of the linux kernel, but LKML provides the glue that holds the kerne, often involving key kernel developers and Bitmover CEO Larry McVoy.
In November 20032003 is a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar), and also: The International Year of Freshwater The European Disability Year Summary Perhaps the defining global event of the year 2003 was the Invasion of Iraq launched by the U, a cracker compromised the CVS gateway and attempted to introduce a security defect that would allow the easy operation of Trojan horseThis article is about computer system security. For Odysseus' subterfuge in the Trojan War, see Trojan Horse. In the context of computer software, a Trojan horse or Trojan is a malicious program that is disguised as legitimate software. The term is derive programs on the resulting kernel. The defect, which masqueraded as a legitimate change by networking architect David S. Miller , was detected and removed within 24 hours of its introduction thanks to BitKeeper.
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Software engineeringSoftware engineering (SE) is the profession concerned with creating and maintaining software applications by applying technologies and practices from computer science, project management, and other fields. SE applications are used in wide range of activit
Version control systems
