Goals
- A simple version management capability that can meet the needs of casual document authors when wrapped in a user interface. In short, provide the ability to track and retrieve old versions of files. Branching and merging are not an objective.
- Be efficient in time, space, and network utilization.
Rationale
IPFS automatically versions files because it is content addressable, i.e. each file can be identified and retrieved based on a unique hash of its contents. The IPFS Mutable File System also supports the access of files through normal names; however, it does not keep a version history so that older versions can be reviewed or recovered. The Interplanetary Versioned File System (ipvfs) if layered on top of the IPFS Mutable File System to support version tracking.