[Discuss] Versioning File Systems

[mbr at arlsoft.com (MBR)]

On 5/4/2012 7:13 PM, Richard Pieri wrote:
> Versioning isn't revision control. Revision control isn't versioning. 
> There is some overlap in what they do but they aren't the same thing. 
> --Rich P. 
That's becoming clear.  I'm trying to understand the difference.  It 
seems like versioning is having the operating system do for all files 
what emacs does for text files.  Is it that versioning automatically 
provides me with some number of backup copies of the file that I can go 
back to in case I screw something up, as long as I don't mistakenly 
delete the whole file.  And that's contrasted with revision control 
which is not automatic.  It requires a conscious decision to save a 
version, but can track file deletion and renaming, and knows about sets 
of file revisions that produce a working system.  Do I have that right?

And with regard to OS's that do versioning in the filesystem, when does 
it decide I've made a new version?  Would my habit of frequently using 
an application's "Save to File" command (in Emacs I type c-x c-s so 
often that people think I have a nervous tick) cause a new version on 
every write to the file?  Or does it only create a new version on the 
first write() after an open()?  Or what?

    Mark