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LibreSource Synchronizer Concepts
LibreSource Synchronizer, a novel configuration management tool
LibreSource Synchronizer is a configuration management tools and can be compared to CVS.
LibreSource Synchronizer is a SCM tool based on the transformational approach LibreSource Synchronizer aims to improve the merging process by unifying it. We don’t need a tool for merging the file system, another for merging text files and another one for merging XML files. We have one merging algorithm for all the data. By some way, LibreSource Synchronizer can be considered as a unified framework for building robust merge tools and verifying its safety. Anyone can extends LibreSource Synchronizer to merge others kind of data by writing a new set of transformation functions.
- In opposite to traditional CM tools, LibreSource Synchronizer is not version based. It is operation based. When a user foo commits his changes, he generates a sequence of operations i.e. a patch file, that is broadcasted to others using a message queue. When a user bar updates his workspace, he retrieves new patches from the queue, merges it with its local operations, and produce another patch file if he wants.
- With LibreSource Synchronizer, you don’t have a sequence of version, you have an history. You can generate any version you want by replaying partial history.
- With LibreSource Synchronizer, you don’t have branches, you can use synchronization networks. It means that a workspace can be synchronized with more than one message queue. You have a limitation, the network must have tree topology. By this way, you can modelize a data process (figure 1).
Figure 1 - LibreSource Synchronizer Dataflow
Red circles represent workspace et green ellipses represent repositories.
LibreSource Synchronizer Features
The list of features are taken from
http://better-scm.berlios.de/comparison/comparison.html
- LibreSource Synchronizer is 100% pure java. It is as portable as java.
- LibreSource Synchronizer improves the merging process. LibreSource Synchronizer merge the file systems, text file and XML files.
- LibreSource Synchronizer allows networks of synchronization (Figure 1). A workspace can be synchronized with more than one queue. By this way, a change can be propagated from one queue to another.
- LibreSource Synchronizer provides atomic commit and update.
- LibreSource Synchronizer provides queue implementation in a shared directory or on a J2EE server with LibreSouce (http://www.libresource.org/). Libresource offers additional services as forums, bug trackers, security, notification etc.
- LibreSource Synchronizer provides the rename operation on files and directories.
- Each LibreSource Synchronizer workspace keep a copy of the history. LibreSource Synchronizer can make diffs, undo, revert offline. Replicating the history along all workspaces makes the system more reliable.
- LibreSource Synchronizer is based on the change set model. Change sets are stored in XML files.
- LibreSource Synchronizer allow to know the history for each line of text file, each entry of a file system, each node of xml document.
- LibreSource Synchronizer allows to make partial commit but not partial update.
- LibreSource Synchronizer allow to track uncommited change. You can do this offline.
- LibreSource Synchronizer do not allow per-file commit message. LibreSource Synchronizer do not allow partial commit or update, so commit messages are for change sets.
- LibreSource Synchronizer is easy to install.
- LibreSource Synchronizer have a good documentation (i Hope).
- LibreSource Synchronizer use only Soap Http tunneled for connection with the J2EE server.
- LibreSource Synchronizer have a command line interface quite similar to CVS (commit and update)
- LibreSource Synchronizer have a web interface when used with LibreSource. LibreSource Synchronizer clients are distributed with Java Web Start
- LibreSource Synchronizer have an eclipse plugin
- LibreSource Synchronizer is open source with an QPL licence.