Version control system (Git)

version control system & source code management (Git)

Version control

Version control, or what is often called "revision control" or "source code management", is an important part of the software development process that involves tracking and managing changes to files over time. Version control allows developers to store their code securely, track the history of changes, and restore to a previous version at any time. It also allows multiple developers to work on the same project at the same time by detecting and resolving conflicts that arise when the same file is edited by multiple people. A common practice in software development.

Version management with GIT

GIT is one of the most widely used version management systems and offers a variety of features, such as the ability to manage multiple parallel development branches, set tags for important versions and merge changes between different branches.

In practice, version control systems like GIT are often used together with a central repository, e.g. on a server, to store code securely and allow developers to work with each other and share changes.

PHP development environments with GIT integrations

There are a variety of PHP development environments that support Git. For example, PhpStorm has a strong Git integration without additional plugins. But Visual Studio Code and NetBeans also have very good Git integration. With Eclipse, however, a suitable plug-in must be installed, but this is not a problem and also works very well with GIT.

GIT systems popular with PHP developers

GitHub is a web-based repository hosting service that provides Git repositories. It is one of the most popular and widely used Git systems and offers strong collaboration functionality.

GitLab is also a web-based Git repository hosting service that also offers Continuous Integration and deployment capabilities.

Not as well known is Bitbucket, a Git repository hosting service aimed at teams and enterprises and particularly popular with Atlassian products.

Self-hosted GIT systems

Many of the services are offered as SaaS, but there are also systems that can be run on your own server. These include GitLab, Gitea and Gogs. Self-hosted GIT systems have the advantage that you have complete control over your data. Nevertheless, you should not underestimate the maintenance effort.