Pijul

Pijul

Pijul is a distributed version control system that takes a different approach than Git. It is based on a mathematical theory of patches and aims to improve collaboration by handling merges better.
Pijul image
distributed patches merges collaboration

Pijul: Distributed Version Control Systems

A patch-based version control system improving collaboration with better merge handling, alternative to Git.

What is Pijul?

Pijul is an open-source distributed version control system that offers an alternative approach to software like Git. Instead of Git's content-addressable storage model, Pijul is built on a theory of patches and solvers developed specifically for version control.

The key difference with Pijul is in its merge capabilities. In systems like Git, merge conflicts arise frequently in distributed teams and solving these problems after they occur can be tedious. Pijul is designed to avoid such conflicts proactively. Its theory of patches allows it to calculate merges across multiple branches and predict conflicts before they actually happen.

This makes Pijul particularly well-suited for open source projects with many contributors editing the same files. It aims to reduce the friction and rework caused by frequent merging across branches. The developers of Pijul designed it to scale complexity exponentially better than alternatives as more contributors work together asynchronously.

Other capabilities offered by Pijul include: cryptographic certification of changes, lighter storage requirements, and simplified workflows for applying third-party patches. The Pijul project itself is developed openly on GitHub.

Pijul Features

Features

  1. Distributed version control
  2. Mathematical theory of patches
  3. Better handling of merges
  4. Supports branching and forking
  5. Cryptographic signing of commits
  6. Works offline

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Good for collaborating with multiple people

Handles merges intelligently

Cryptographic signing improves security

Works offline and syncs when back online

Cons

Less mature and popular than Git

Smaller community than Git

Some limitations in Windows support currently


The Best Pijul Alternatives

Top Development and Version Control Systems and other similar apps like Pijul


Mercurial SCM icon

Mercurial SCM

Mercurial is a free, distributed source control management system designed for efficient and reliable control of source code and other revision-controlled assets. Key features of Mercurial include:Distributed peer-to-peer architecture, allowing decentralized and collaborative developmentRobust branching and merging capabilities to support complex workflowsSecure, encrypted repositories with integrated access controlPowerful integrations with...
Mercurial SCM image
Perforce icon

Perforce

Perforce is a proprietary version control system developed by Perforce Software. It is popular among large enterprises, especially game studios, manufacturers, and semiconductor companies, to manage their digital assets and source code.Some key features of Perforce include:Excellent scaling for extremely large codebases with millions of files and revisionsAdvanced branching and...
Perforce image
Gogs icon

Gogs

Gogs is an open source self-hosted Git service written in Go language. It allows you to set up your own GitHub-like environment on a server to host Git repositories and collaborate with others.Some key features of Gogs:Easy installation - It has small footprint and can run on a Raspberry PiUser...
Gogs image
Apache Subversion icon

Apache Subversion

Apache Subversion (often abbreviated SVN) is a software versioning and revision control system distributed as free and open source software. Software developers use Subversion to maintain current and historical versions of files such as source code, web pages, and documentation. Its goal is to be a mostly compatible successor to...
Apache Subversion image
Fossil icon

Fossil

Fossil is an open-source, distributed version control system developed by D. Richard Hipp. It emphasizes simplicity, security, and data integrity over features commonly found in other version control systems.Some key features and capabilities of Fossil include:Distributed architecture - Allows geographically distributed teams to collaborate on a projectIntegrated bug tracking -...
Fossil image
CVS (Concurrent Versions System) icon

CVS (Concurrent Versions System)

CVS (Concurrent Versions System) is one of the earliest open source version control systems. It allows multiple developers to work on the same codebase concurrently by maintaining a central repository that stores the latest revision of the files. Developers "check out" copies of the files, work on them independently, and...
CVS (Concurrent Versions System) image
Plastic SCM icon

Plastic SCM

Plastic SCM is a distributed version control system designed for teams of developers working on Windows, Linux and Mac platforms. Some key features of Plastic SCM include:High performance - Plastic SCM is optimized for large, active projects with thousands of files and frequent commits from multiple simultaneous users. It scales...
Plastic SCM image
Veracity icon

Veracity

Veracity is an open source data trust platform created by DNV for secure data sharing and governance. It establishes trust in data through traceability, provenance, security, and control over valuable data assets.Key features of Veracity include:Data provenance tracking to understand the origins and transformations of dataAccess controls, permissions and audit...
Veracity image
BitKeeper icon

BitKeeper

BitKeeper is a proprietary distributed revision control system originally developed by Larry McVoy in 2002. It was created as an alternative to existing systems like CVS and Subversion which relied on a centralized server to store all code revisions.Some key features of BitKeeper include:Distributed architecture - allows developers to have...
BitKeeper image
Darcs icon

Darcs

darcs is an advanced distributed revision control system that differs fundamentally from systems like Git and Mercurial in its underlying theory. While darcs shares common functionality with other version control tools like committing and branching/merging changes, it is built on a unique algebra of patches and provides innovative features like...
Darcs image
SourceAnywhere icon

SourceAnywhere

SourceAnywhere is a version control and source code management tool developed by Perforce Software. It allows development teams to collaborate on coding projects by tracking file revisions, enabling developers to work on parallel branches, merging code changes into a central repository, maintaining a history of changes, and securely accessing the...
SourceAnywhere image
Monotone icon

Monotone

Monotone is an open-source distributed version control system for software development. It is designed to track changes to computer files and coordinate work on those files among multiple people. Some key features of Monotone include:Distributed architecture - Each developer has a local database containing the full version history of files,...
Monotone image