devops
Got big binaries? Tired of other version control systems that treat them like inferior files? Lore might be worth a look
Fortnite maker and Apple nemesis Epic Games has decided to git good all on its own with the open-source release of its homemade version control system, dubbed Lore.The project began life as Unreal Revision Control, and was used by internal teams and as the version control system (VCS) built into Unreal Editor for Fortnite. Now, Epic is ready to share its handiwork with the world. Lore is a centralized, content-addressed VCS that’s meant to be more flexible for developers, as it's licensed under the less restrictive MIT License instead of the copyleft requirements inherent in the GNU standard. MIT is generally considered more permissive because, unlike GNU, it doesn't require derivatives to be licensed in the same way (e.g., a fork of Lore could be proprietary).
Lore can be installed on macOS, Windows, and Linux and its server side is designed to be transportable into different cloud services as well. The biggest difference between Lore and other VCS is its equal treatment of text files – e.g., code – and binaries. “All content is treated as opaque byte streams on the hot path,” Epic explains in its system design explanation document. “Text-aware features are layered on top, never assumed by the storage or transport paths. Binary content gets the same first-class treatment as text.”With that in mind, it’s obvious who Epic is targeting with the release: Game developers. Lore is purpose-built for projects that use large binary files such as games, Epic said, but that doesn’t preclude other use cases with heavy binary loads, like AI model builders, systems developers, and others who work with large amounts of machine-readable data alongside their own code.We have lots of VCS data, so why do we need Lore?There are plenty of VCS options out there: Git, Perforce, Mercurial (and its descendent Sapling) are all mentioned by Epic as alternatives that resemble Lore in its design and use. So, why a new VCS? That’s easy, says the Fortnite studio: None of ‘em do it all.
