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In computer programming, distributed version control, also known as distributed revision control or decentralized version control, allows many software developers to work on a given project without requiring them to share a common network. The software revisions are stored in a distributed revision control system (DRCS), also known as a distributed version control system (DVCS).

Distributed revision control takes a peer-to-peer approach to version control, as opposed to the client-server approach of centralized systems. Rather than a single, central repository on which clients synchronize, each peer's working copy of the codebase is a complete repository. Distributed revision control synchronizes repositories by exchanging patches (sets of changes) from peer to peer. This results in some important differences from a centralized system:

Other differences include:

DVCS proponents point to several advantages of distributed version control systems over the traditional centralised model:

Software development author Joel Spolsky, the owner of a commercial DVCS, described distributed version control as "possibly the biggest advance in software development technology in the [past] ten years."

A disadvantage is that initial cloning of a repository is slower as compared to centralized checkout, because all branches and revision history are copied to your local machine. This may be significant if access speed is slow and the repository size is large enough. For instance, the size of the cloned git repository (all history, branches, tags, etc.) for the Linux kernel is approximately the size of the checked-out uncompressed HEAD, whereas the equivalent checkout of a single branch in a centralized checkout would be the compressed size of the contents of HEAD (except without any history, branches, tags, etc.). Another problem with DVCS is the lack of locking mechanisms that is part of most centralized VCS and still plays an important role when it comes to non-mergeable binary files such as graphic assets.

An "open system" of distributed revision control is characterized by its support for independent branches, and its reliance on merge operations. Its general characteristics include:

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