VCtools is designed to provide the following features:

o Portability between CVS and Subversion--Use the same scripts no matter which version control system you use.

o Consolidation of development policy--If all developers on a project use VCtools, version control policy decisions can be centralized.

o Project/repository separation--In VCtools, a "project" can be the entire contents of a repository, or a certain subdirectory within the repository. This allows a repository to contain several projects, but still allows developers to work on project individually without jumping through hoops.

o Ease of use--Certain commands in CVS or (to a lesser degree) Subversion may not function exactly like you want. VCtools gives you a place to customize these features.

As with all projects, VCtools is a work in progress. Currently, the core tools were designed on CVS, then ported to Subversion and expanded significantly. They are now in the process of being ported back to CVS. Thus there are parts that don't work on one or the other system. Caveat codor.