Version Control

Definitions

1. The practice and tooling for tracking changes to files over time, enabling developers to revert to previous states, work on parallel branches, and merge contributions from multiple people. Git is the dominant implementation, though Mercurial and SVN persist in some organizations.

   In plain English: A system that records every change made to your code over time, so you can go back to any previous version and collaborate without overwriting each other's work.

   Example: "Before version control, our 'backup strategy' was a folder called 'project-final-FINAL-v3-really-final'."

Related Terms

• Pull Request
• Code Review
• Feature Branch
• Repository
• Source Control
• Version Control System
• Commit Message
• Commit Hook
• Git Culture