Summary: SCCS vs. RCS

[Lou Kates]

The following describes the relative advantages and disadvantages
of SCCS vs. RCS. The * indicates which of the two on each line is
preferable. In  lines without a *,  there is either no difference
or   preference   will   depend   on  your  particular needs  and
circumstances.

Item            SCCS                          RCS

custom header   yes*                          no
change requests yes*                          no
make            understands SCCS*             does not understand RCS
setuid          yes*                          no

user interface  worse                         better*
symbolic tags   no                            yes*
loc'n of revs   current directory             any directory*
rev history     stored in SCCS                can be copied to file on checkout*

speed           retrieve old versions faster  retrieve latest version faster
distribution    binary from UNIX vendor       source from Purdue or GNU
free front ends sccs                          CVS
usually used in System V                      BSD

The above list may change over time as SCCS and RCS are improved.
In particular,  apparently,  setuid on  certain platforms and the
ability to retrieve older versions faster  will be in the next or
future versions of RCS.

The disadvantages  with either  can often  be overcome by using a
simple shell (possibly even just a  csh or ksh alias) front  end.
Several freely available front ends exist.

Perhaps one of  the  points in the  table above is enough to make
you choose one  of the two systems  but my sense of the  response
was that  RCS  and SCCS  are sufficiently similar  that you would
probably  be guided  by   what was most available and familiar to
you which means SCCS on System V and RCS on BSD.


WHERE TO GET

RCS is  available  on arthur.cs.purdue.edu.  If you have problems
contact rcs-bugs at cs.purdue.edu. An MS-DOS version is available on
wsmr-simtel20.army.mil in

        PD1:<MSDOS.PGMUTL>DOSRCSEX.ZIP
        PD1:<MSDOS.PGMUTL>DOSRCSMP.ZIP
        PD1:<MSDOS.PGMUTL>MKSRCSEX.ZIP

On star.cs.vu.nl in pub/cvs is a  shell script version of the CVS
front end for RCS by Dick Grune, Vrije Universiteit, de Boelelaan
1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam, the Netherlands, dick at cs.vu.nl.

On  uunet.uu.net  in ~ftp/comp.sources.unix/volume22/cvs-berliner
is a C version of  CVS front end for RCS by Brian Berliner, Rocky
Mountain Technology Center, Sun  Microsystems, 5465 Mark  Dabling
Blvd., Colorado Springs, CO 80918, berliner at sun.com.

RCS and  CVS may  also be   found on prep.ai.mit.edu although the
locations referred to above may have more recent versions.

A number of SCCS front ends have been posted to comp.sources.unix
and alt.sources.


REFERENCES

 Marc J. Rochkind, "The Source Code Control System",
 IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol SE-1(4), 364-370, Dec 1975.

 Walter F. Tichy, "RCS -- A System for Version Control",
 Software--Practice and Experience, Vol 15(7), 637-654, Jul 1985.


THANKS

Thanks to the following for posting or sending me emails:

bad at atrain.sw.stratus.com (Bruce Dumes)
berliner at rmtc.Central.Sun.COM (Brian Berliner)
bhahn at bogus.sw.stratus.com (Bill Hahn)
cbmvax!hutch!purdom at uunet.UU.NET (purdom)
celit!billd at celerity.fps.com (Bill Davidson)
charles at phx.mcd.mot.com (Charles Wolff)
dick at cs.vu.nl (Dick Grune)
drz at csri.toronto.edu (Jerry Zarycky)
emv at math.lsa.umich.edu (Edward Vielmetti)
guy at auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
jmm at eci386.uucp (John Macdonald)
johnl at iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine)
leadsv!white at apple.com (Ben White)
mks!watmath!domain.com!mdv (Mike Verstegen)
rick at tetrauk.tetrauk (Rick Jones)
rob at b15.INGR.COM (Rob Lemley)
sdrc!scjones%thor at uunet.UU.NET (Larry Jones)
watmath!acf4.NYU.EDU!poppers (Michael Poppers)
watmath!servio.SLC.COM!penneyj (D. Jason Penney)
woods at eci386.uucp (Greg A. Woods)