Determining Factors For Selecting A Program - Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE SERVER 11 - ADMINISTRATION Administration Manual

26.2 Determining Factors for
Selecting a Program
There are some important factors to consider when deciding which program to use.
26.2.1 Client-Server versus Peer-to-Peer
Two different models are commonly used for distributing data. In the first model, all
clients synchronize their files with a central server. The server must be accessible by
all clients at least occasionally. This model is used by CVS.
The other possibility is to let all networked hosts synchronize their data between each
other as peers. rsync actually works in client mode, but any client can also act as a
server.
26.2.2 Portability
CVS and rsync are also available for many other operating systems, including various
Unix and Windows systems.
26.2.3 Interactive versus Automatic
In CVS, the data synchronization is started manually by the user. This allows fine
control over the data to synchronize and easy conflict handling. However, if the syn-
chronization intervals are too long, conflicts are more likely to occur.
26.2.4 Conflicts: Incidence and Solution
Conflicts only rarely occur in CVS, even when several people work on one large program
project. This is because the documents are merged on the basis of individual lines.
When a conflict occurs, only one client is affected. Usually conflicts in CVS can easily
be resolved.
File Synchronization 363