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8.3 DESCRIPTION

Monotone is a version control system, which allows you to keep old versions of files, as well as special revisions and manifests which describe the edit history, location, and content of files in a tree. Unlike other systems, versions in monotone are identified by cryptographic hash, and operations are authenticated by individual users' evaluating cryptographic signatures on meta-data, rather than any central authority.

Monotone keeps a collection of versions in a single-file relational database. It is essentially serverless, using network servers only as untrusted communication facilities. A monotone database is a regular file, which contains all the information needed to extract previous versions of files, verify signatures, merge and modify versions, and communicate with network servers.