Version Models for Software Configuration Management

After more than 20 years of research and practice in software configuration
management (SCM), constructing consistent configurations of versioned software
products still remains a challenge. This article focuses on the version models
underlying both commercial systems and research prototypes. It provides an
overview and classification of different versioning paradigms and defines and
relates fundamental concepts such as revisions, variants, configurations, and
changes. In particular, we focus on intensional versioning, that is, construction of
versions based on configuration rules. Finally, we provide an overview of systems
that have had significant impact on the development of the SCM discipline and
classify them according to a detailed taxonomy.