What Is Version Control

Part of the Version Control section of Coddy's Terminal journey — lesson 1 of 58.

Version control is a system that records changes to files over time, so you can review history, undo mistakes, and work with others without overwriting each other's work.

Without version control, projects often look like this:

report.txt
report_v2.txt
report_final.txt
report_final_FINAL.txt
report_final_FINAL_use_this_one.txt

With version control, the file is just report.txt. The tool keeps every previous version inside a hidden history you can browse, compare, and roll back to.

The most popular version control tool in the world is Git. It is what powers GitHub, GitLab, and almost every modern codebase.

Cheat sheet

Version control records file changes over time, enabling history review, undoing mistakes, and collaboration. Git is the most popular version control tool, powering GitHub and GitLab.

Try it yourself

This lesson doesn't include a code challenge.