The purpose of version control is to keep track of the incremental changes to documents and source code throughout the software development cycle. It is especially useful in a team setting where several developers may be working on the same files and they need to make sure that they do not write over the changes that the other developers are making. Version control systems allow each developer to lock the file while they are making changes and then to check the changes back in when they are done, allowing the next developer to make their changes to the file.

Version control systems vary a great deal in their functionality and in their price. The pages in this section give brief summaries of the available version control systems in the hopes that you can find the one that is best suited for your development.