Other uses of version control than for code?

Question

Seeing this: http://www.suckless.org/wiki.html. A wiki based on Mercurial. Are there any other non-code related use to version control? Is there any other projects that uses version control tools inside instead of programming their own specific solution?

Answer 1

Simple bug-tracking system with a file per bug, folder structure to handle an statuses and naming convention for simpler searching.

Answer 2

A couple that come to mind

1. Documentation
2. specifications
3. test databases

Answer 3

Putting /etc or other configuration directories/files under Version Control can be useful when done correctly.

Also some people like to put their home directory under version control.

Answer 4

Going further down the "non-code" path, how about GTD?

If you keep your tasks, contexts, next actions, etc. in plain text, you could use version control to maintain and replay your project activities. The commit log(s) could provide a nice activity summary if you have to report such things.

Answer 5

Configuration files. Nice way to document the changes to your system. And always being able to revert the changes.

Answer 6

As a soon-to-graduate student looking for work, I'm using version control for my resume.

Why I'm doing it:

1. I can maintain a single default resume for most job applications (the "trunk").
2. If I want to play with different formatting options, I can branch out and play there without affecting the trunk
3. If I need a latest copy at short notice, the trunk always has a stable version
4. If some job opening requires specific skills, I can branch off a version where I highlight those
5. I can create tags to keep track of what versions I sent specific companies, which can help me prepare for interviews
6. It's fun to see how my resume evolves over time :)

Answer 7

At my office we use it as a form of at-times disconnected file sharing. There's about 4GB of files in the HEAD revision and it works brilliantly. Having the full version history for all your documents is a great backup tool.

Answer 8

We have a group of graphics designers that we are currently trying to convert to use Team Foundation Server, via Teamprise.

Also, don't think of it just as code in a traditional sense. Database scripts, indexing scripts for search appliances, etc. all can be captured and versioned, as well. In conjunction with a good build process, you can take a lot of the manual effort out of deploying these artifacts, too.

And, as others have mentioned, documentation, test data, etc.

Answer 9

I would use VC to implement an archival (or backup) feature for data on disk.

Also:

• Any document related to a project.

Answer 10

Not what you are talking about, but version control software could be an easy platform for file-sharing with a friend or small network.

For PURELY LEGAL REASONS ONLY, of course.

Answer 11

Anything that goes through versions (documents, code, presentations, ads, images...) can all benefit from version control. If there is more that one person using/editing the piece, then you definitely need version control. Really, they need to be able to show differences, and track history independent of the editing program.

Thanks to this post from Rands in Repose ("Dumbing Down the Cloud[sic]"), I've looked into dropbox which is free online storage with version history tracking, rollback and sharing. For someone like my wife, a professor working with coworkers on papers across the country, this is a huge step forward in their work flow.

Answer 12

My company stores all Life Cycle documentation for each product release in version control. These are items created during the development, testing and release of products.

We started this to support development, but ended up liking having version control and history for documentation, test cases, etc.

Answer 13

Bit of a late answer, but I felt this belonged here:

Some time ago, I used Git to track time spent gaming. I tied the games' shortcuts to a small program which monitored the processes and the game saves. Every time a game was started, it switched to a branch named after that game, and committed the saves every 10 minutes even if they were not changed. When the game was exited, it stopped and switched back to master.

Simply opening a "git tree" of the repository would show me how long a game had run, as well as keep a versioned archive of its saves, which is really useful to go "back in time" if necessary.