Version Control for One Man Dev Team? [duplicate]

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Should I use a code repository if I am the only one working on a project? [duplicate] (11 answers)

Closed 7 years ago.

I recently began work at a small company as a lone software developer. Before I came no true documentation/version control/etc. was in place. The best they have is Microsoft Word documents and Excel spreadsheets to keep track of everything the engineering team produces.

Personally, among other things, I'd like to institute version control for my own sake, but they're extremely hesitant about it.

My question, is version control sane for a lone developer? What are some of the benefits of version control to a lone developer? Also, what are some of the benefits to, say, a 2-3 man team? And, being that it is a private company, would Github or a private Git server be best?

Answer 1

I ran across a similar issue working as a contractor. The IT team had no backup and no idea how to institute something. Rather than regale them with possible doomsday scenarios, I set up a git repository on the machine on which I was working.

When it came time for me to leave, I instructed one of the team members how to access the repo and pointed them to the online doc "Git in a Nutshell". Then I left. I don't know if they continued to use it. However, for the time I was there, all my work was backed up.