How can I use version control in a more powerful way?

Question

On most of my projects, individual or group, I find that I only use version control to simply pull latest changes and post my own code up.

However, I know that there is a lot more to version control, what with branches and other powerful features that I don't use.

Can someone give me advice on how to use version control in a more powerful way?

The version control systems I'm mostly talking about are SVN and Git.

Answer 1

You can start here: Red book

You create tags for the things you released; you create branches for the things you are working on and could potentially be wrong/unstable. Your trunk should be as stable as possible (man, that didn't sound right).

Answer 2

Master merging and branching. The thing I find amazing about most uses of version control is that 90% of the people using it don't know how to use it to support two different branches at the same time they use it as a linear versioning system when they check in changes. The real power of version control is that it allows you to effectively maintain two separate versions of a system at the same time which is something that comes in handy when you have to simultaneously support a production version and develop a new version of a piece of software. Learning how to use a tool like Subclipse (and Eclipse plugin for Maven) or a tool like Git to merge changes between branches is something I wish more people using Version Control knew how to do.