Editing Version control (section)

==Distributed revision control==
{{Main|Distributed version control}}
Distributed revision control systems (DRCS) take a peer-to-peer approach, as opposed to the [[client–server model|client–server]] approach of centralized systems. Rather than a single, central repository on which clients synchronize, each peer's working copy of the codebase is a [[good faith|bona-fide]] repository.<ref>{{cite web
  | last = Wheeler
  | first = David
  | title = Comments on Open Source Software / Free Software (OSS/FS) Software Configuration Management (SCM) Systems
  | url = http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/scm.html
  | access-date = May 8, 2007
  | archive-date = November 9, 2020
  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201109022758/http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/scm.html
  | url-status = dead
  }}</ref>
Distributed revision control conducts synchronization by exchanging [[Patch (computing)|patches]] (change-sets) from peer to peer. This results in some important differences from a centralized system:
* No canonical, reference copy of the codebase exists by default; only working copies.
* Common operations (such as commits, viewing history, and reverting changes) are fast, because there is no need to communicate with a central server.<ref name=Mercurial/>{{rp|7}}
Rather, communication is only necessary when pushing or pulling changes to or from other peers.
* Each working copy effectively functions as a remote backup of the codebase and of its change-history, providing inherent protection against data loss.<ref name=Mercurial/>{{rp|4}}