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I tried to dig it up. I think the terms "version control" and "package management" overlap a lot in how people classify their software or do the histories. They

I tried to dig it up. I think the terms "version control" and "package management" overlap a lot in how people classify their software or do the histories. They're different with some overlap but it's all muddied up. Interestingly, I found no history in Google of package management from early to modern stuff. There's an interesting project right there for some CompSci student interested in computer archaeology. :) I did find VC history where the first thing to track software seemed to be SCCC on UNIX: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_Code_Control_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_Code_Control_System The rest, from CVS to mainframe stuff to Apollo Aegis's, all showed up around mid-1980's in similar time frame per Wikipedia descriptions. pkg seems strong contender for first, package manager if even version control of source didn't hit others until after its creation.

jslabovitz 10y ago
There were versioning file systems in the 1960s (MIT's ITS among them, and I think Univac's EXEC 8, though I can't find a reference) [1]. Often, new writes to a file bumped a version (or cycle) count in the file system. I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were tools to do diffing and patching much like modern VCS systems. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versioning_file_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versioning_file_system