There are 18 basic operations you can do with a version control system.[8] In this chapter, I will introduce each of these operations as an abstract notion which can be implemented by the actual commands of a specific version control tool. Usually, the name of my abstract operation is the most common name for the command that implements the operation. For example, since the action of committing changes to the repository is called “commit” by Subversion, Veracity, Git, Mercurial, and Bazaar, it seemed like a good idea to use that term here as well.
For the details of how these operations map to the concrete commands of specific version control tools, see later chapters, such as Chapter 3: “Basics with Subversion”.
[8] Most version control systems have more than 18 commands, including lots of useful stuff I am not describing here. This chapter is about the 18 common operations which could be considered the core concepts of version control.