Hello, can anyone tell me what exactly cvs packages are? The benefits and the downfalls?

Thanks

CVS = Concurrent Versioning System

In English: it's a system to keep track of changes made to code when there are multiple people working on the same project.

When you download a cvs package from a CVS server, you are downloading the absolute latest version of the software. And by that, I mean you are typically getting code that was merged into the project that day. The project is being actively developed, and you're downloading a daily snapshot.

This is great if you want to stay on the bleeding edge. It's not so great if you want stability. Someone may have just merged in code that has a bug. Someone may have checked in code that prevents a successful compile. If the developers have a strict checkin policy, then that lowers the chances, but people are human and sometimes make mistakes.

However, some projects will create "releases" inside CVS that you can check out. These are considered stable because the set of files won't change; they're frozen. With this route, you obviously aren't getting the latest-and-greatest.

My suggestion: unless you're a developer with the project, then you probably shouldn't mess with CVS unless it's the only way the project team offers the code (free Cedega is an example), or at least, stick to stable releases.

CVS - Concurrent Versions System

i hae used that to get the latest packages
if u want to get the latest develpment packages ,and cannot wait for their Stable release then u can do that by CVS, if it is supported

the disadv. will be that they are not tested for stabilty so might end up with some bugs

regards

CVS == Concurrent Versioning System - a source code management system.

CVS is where programmers check in their latest code revisions. The code is the latest and (hopefully) greatest, but at best it can be considered beta. It is often pre-alpha. It depends on the check-in standards and maturity of the project.

thanks all