Centralized source control

In a centralized source control system, the server is the only location where the full repository, including all of the history, is stored. When you create a local version of the content, you only receive the latest version of the code. Receiving this latest version is called checking out the repository. In addition to this latest version, your own computer only has the changes you make locally.

Not checking out the full history obviously saves space on your local computer. However, disk space is hardly ever an issue nowadays. Yet the downside of this is that you need to be continuously connected to the server to perform operations such as viewing the history of a file, recent commits of others, or which line in a file was last changed by who.

An advantage of centralized source control systems is that that they often offer options for fine-grained control over who can access which branches, directories, and even files.