BitKeeper

BitKeeper is a Management system of versions intended for the Source code. Conceived like a sophisticated distributed system, BitKeeper positions like a software comparable with professional systems such as ClearCase or Perforce. BitKeeper is produced by BitMover Inc., a private company based with San Francisco in California, held by its chairman Larry McVoy (it is also at the origin of TeamWare).

BitKeeper takes again several concepts of TeamWare. The proposed functionality is the facility with which the development teams can have a local deposit of the sources, while working with a centralized deposit.

BitKeeper is a Logiciel owner (his sources are not opened with the public) and in theory is sold or rented (as composing in a broader offer of support) at the large ones or medium businesses. The price of the license by developer varies according to the customer, but it is estimated at more than thousand euros.

Free use for the open-source projects

BitMover proposed the access to its system for certain projects Open free source or of which one of most famous is the source code of the Noyau Linux.

The license of the version " community" of BitKeeper allowed the developers to use free the tool for the open-source projects or free, in the condition that these same developers do not take part in the development of a competitor tool (such as CVS, Arch, Mercurial, Subversion or ClearCase) during all the utilization period of BitKeeper, plus one year. This restriction was applicable as well to the free competitor tools as owners.

This version also required that certain méta-information concerning the modifications is preserved on waiters managed by BitMover (www.openlogging.org), a condition which did not allow the users of the version " community" to set up projects without BitMover being advised.

BitKeeper and Linux

The decision taken in 2002 to use BitKeeper for the development of the Linux core was very discussed. Some, in particular Richard Stallman, founder of GNU, expressed their skepticism towards the use of a tool owner for a project having the appearance of a carry-flag of the free software.

While the coordinator Linus Torvalds and some of the principal developers adopted BitKeeper, of many developer-keys (of which the veteran Alan Cox) refused to make some in the same way, by quoting the license of BitMover and while alleging that the project gave part of its become with a development owner.

To cross short to expressed fears, BitMover added footbridges allowing a partial Interopérabilité between the waiters BitKeeper de Linux (managed by BitMover) and the developers using CVS or Subversion. But even after this addition, of the occasional flamewars occurred on the Linux Kernel Mailing List, regularly implying developer-keys of the core and Larry McVoy, the chairman of BitMover, which is him also a developer of the Linux core.

End of the free version

In April 2005, BitMover announced that it would stop providing the free version of BitKeeper to the community. The called upon reason was the efforts of Andrew " Tridge" Tridgell, a developer used by OSDL on a third project, to develop a customer allowing to post the meta-data of BitKeeper (concerning in particular the revisions, and potentially including the differences between the versions) instead of obtaining only the most recent version. The possibility of seeing the meta-data and of comparing the previous models is one of the principal functionalities of any management system of version, but it was not available for those which did not have a commercial license of BitKeeper, which strongly upset the majority of the developers of the Linux core. Although BitMover granted some commercial licenses to certain developers of the core, the company refused to give or to sell licenses with whoever is employed by the OSDL, including Linus Torvalds and Andrew Morton, placing the developers of the OSDL in the same situation as that of the other developers of the core.

The free end of the right of use is official since July 1st 2005. The users were constrained to pass to commercial release or to change control system of version before this date.

Consequences

BitKeeper met a true need near many free projects or open source. From their very dispersed nature, the majority of these projects are very inclined to use this type of tools, making it possible to work in a decentralized way, while preserving a central deposit. The disappearance of the free version will most probably involve the appearance of a competitor open-source in the more or less long term, because until there, the availability of BitKeeper had made useless the development of such a tool competitor. With regard to the Linux core, the project Git started under the impulse of Linus Torvalds, with for objective becoming the management software of version of the sources of the core (what is the case since June 2005).

See too

External bonds

Official site
" Not quite Open Source" article of Linux Weekly News, 1999, in connection with the functionalities, of the licenses, Larry McVoy and the OSI
" No More Free BitKeeper" discuss the decision of BitMover to stop the free version of BitKeeper
" BitKeeper and Linux: The end off the road? " approach the failure of BitKeeper according to three points of view: Linus Torvalds, Larry McVoy, Andrew " Tridge" Tridgell
SourcePuller the result of work of Tridge

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