Monotone (software)

Monotone is a Software tool for revision control licensed under the GNU General Public License.

=Features=

Like GNU arch and unlike Subversion (software), Monotone takes a distributed approach to version control. A unique feature of Monotone is that instead of using version numbers for each revision, it uses SHA hash functions hashes to identify specific files or groups of files.

Although Monotone originally supported a variety of networking protocols for synchronizing trees, it now exclusively uses a custom protocol called netsync , which is more robust and efficient. There is no separate Monotone server because any Monotone client can act as a server, in accordance with the end-to-end principle.

Other features of Monotone include: *Good internationalization and localization support *Portable design, implemented in C plus plus *Monotone can import CVS projects. *Only 2 MB binary on x86. *Digital signature of revisions using RSA certificates *Easy to learn, due to a command set similar to that of Concurrent Versions System *Good documentation

As of May 2005, possible drawbacks of Monotone include:

Less mature and popular than competing systems such as GNU arch and Subversion

No support for traditional communication protocols like Secure FTP

A lack of Graphical user interface interfaces. A GUI exists only for viewing the history. (read-only)

In April 2005, Monotone became the subject of increased interest in the . Git s design uses some ideas from Monotone, but the two projects do not share any core source code.

=Releases=

*Version 0.19 was released on 3 May, 2005. It contained performance improvements, more features, user interface improvements, and bug fixes. *Version 0.18 was released on 11 April, 2005. It contained performance improvements and bug fixes. *Version 0.17 was released on 18 March, 2005. It contained Computer bug fixes and additional features.

=Platforms=

Monotone is released as source code and pre-built binaries for several platforms, including: *Linux X86/Glibc 2.3 *FreeBSD X86 *Windows XP *Mac OS X *Fedora Core X86 *Debian X86 *Gentoo X86

=Support=

Currently support for the software is given on mailinglists and Internet Relay Chat.

=Author=

The primary author of Monotone is Graydon Hoare.

=See also=

*Concurrent Versions System *GNU arch *SVK *SCM

=External links=

*[http://www.venge.net/monotone/ Monotone Homepage]