Alternatives to Open Source Clearcase

Question

I am helping set up SCM for a new program, and we are currently in the process of deciding on VCS.

The main applicants at the moment are SVN, ClearCase, SVN + DVCS and only DVCS.

Currently, the team is leaning towards SVN or SVN + DVCS. We want to avoid the costs and expenses of administering ClearCase, but we want the proposed workflow options and versions. I also suggested using DVCS, and the idea is under consideration.

For DVCS, we review Mercurial, Bazaar, and Git. The team feels comfortable with SVN, but I don’t think it will offer versatility, so we look at DVCS on top of the SVN option.

Does anyone have any tips (e.g. existing tools, processes) for getting this setup?

Concerts include:

• Easy setup
• Configuring workflows (development ↔ code review → test → trunk, then trunk → branch test branch → release with bug fixes placed in release branches), audit (a bug was detected when this was introduced)
• Metric generation
• A reasonable learning curve for developers used by ClearCase.
• Windows development
• Error tracker integration (probably Redmine, although it is not installed in the stone)

Answer 1

As a ClearCase administrator, I would rule out this tool if you don't have a complicated merge workflow.

the workflow that you mention includes the possibility of forking, fixing, and merging back later, which should not be in favor of SVN.

The biggest trap when you use ClearCase (espacially non-UCM ClearCase) is the "composition" of the configuration specification.
If you chose DVCS (Mercurial, Bazaar - or Git, since it works fine on Windows ), you would not be able to get the same “inheritance” effect - (when you select different versions with different sequential selection rules - : as said in this answer :

In a purely central VCS, you can define your workspace (in ClearCase, your “view” or snapshot or dynamic) with any rules you want.
This would be impractical in DVCS (as in "Common"): when you create a branch with it, you need to do this with a starting point and well-defined content and easily replicate to other repositories.

If you use ClearCase UCM, this means identifying coherent sets of files that can only be reached through - for example, Git submodules .
With these DVCSs, the complexity is higher because they do not record dependencies between modules (or “fileset”), as ClearCase UCM does.

So, to repeat:

• Easy setup: all listed DVCS are easy to set up. What you need to consider is administration in terms of user access.
• Configuring workflows: DVCS supports any workflow, even centralized, or public-private, or ... As for finding errors, they all support some kind of bisect .
• Creating metrics: if by this you mean "metrics about managed code", they all support some complete logging system that can display a lot of information about what has changed.
  But in terms of “tool metrics” (speed of a process or space taken with data), the mentioned DVCS tools are considered much faster than SVN (see here as an example ).
• Intelligent learning curve for developers used for ClearCase: The graphical user interface may be a factor in facilitating the learning curve, but DVCS is very different from ClearCase, as these are “ basic concepts .”
• Windows development: they all work well on the Windows platform, perhaps a slight advantage (better integration) with Mercurial or Bazaar.
• Error tracker integration (probably Redmine, although it is not installed in the stone): Redmine now supports most of them (and not just SVN, as it was at the beginning)

Answer 2

What is the problem with git? I am using Git for Windows right now. It works great. Git Extensions are very useful if you want to integrate explorer if this is your problem.

Answer 3

I have no experience with clearcase, but hopefully the following will help some. Your question does not contain information that I would take into account before deciding. First, how much source code do you have? While SVN is good at medium to large projects for really huge ones, such as the Linux Git kernel, it will provide much better performance. Secondly, which IDE are you using? While Mercurial, Git, and SVN all have visual studios and plugins for eclipse, the quality is very good there. According to the Wikipedia article on Redmine, any of the SCM systems you are looking at will be integrated. The following blog may be useful to you because it is a written purchase for a guy who writes an SCM system for life. http://www.ericsink.com/

Answer 4

If you can refuse the requirement that it work on Windows, I would recommend looking at Aegis .