TortoiseCVS is a CVS

Concurrent Versions System

The Concurrent Versions System , also known as the Concurrent Versioning System, is a client-server free software revision control system in the field of software development. Version control system software keeps track of all work and all changes in a set of files, and allows several developers ...

 client for Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

 released under the GNU General Public License

GNU General Public License

The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....

. Unlike most CVS tools, it includes itself in Windows' shell by adding entries in the contextual menu of the file explorer, therefore it does not run in its own window

Window (computing)

In computing, a window is a visual area containing some kind of user interface. It usually has a rectangular shape that can overlap with the area of other windows...

. Moreover, it adds icons

Icon (computing)

A computer icon is a pictogram displayed on a computer screen and used to navigate a computer system or mobile device. The icon itself is a small picture or symbol serving as a quick, intuitive representation of a software tool, function or a data file accessible on the system. It functions as an...

 onto files and directories controlled by CVS, giving additional information to the user without having to run a full-scale stand-alone application.

The name is a pun on the word shell

Shell (computing)

A shell is a piece of software that provides an interface for users of an operating system which provides access to the services of a kernel. However, the term is also applied very loosely to applications and may include any software that is "built around" a particular component, such as web...

. The tortoise

Tortoise

Tortoises are a family of land-dwelling reptiles of the order of turtles . Like their marine cousins, the sea turtles, tortoises are shielded from predators by a shell. The top part of the shell is the carapace, the underside is the plastron, and the two are connected by the bridge. The tortoise...

 in the logo is called Charlie Vernon Smythe (CVS).

The project was started by Francis Irving

Francis Irving

Francis Irving is a 36 year old British computer programmer and activist for freedom of information.Francis Irving developed TortoiseCVS.He co-founded Public Whip with Julian Todd and became a developer of the affiliated TheyWorkForYou website, a project which parses raw Hansard data to track how...

 when he was employed by Creature Labs

Creature Labs

Creature Labs was a company based in Cambridge, England which was set up to develop the artificial life technology created by Steve Grand...

 to provide a better interface to CVS for his colleagues. Some of the code was derived from WinCVS and CVSNT

CVSNT

The CVSNT Versioning System implements a version control system: it keeps track of all changes in a set of files, typically the implementation of a software project, and allows several developers to collaborate...

. The first release was 4 August 2000.http://www.tortoisecvs.org/stablechangelog.shtml

Ports and forks

• TortoiseSVN
  TortoiseSVN
  TortoiseSVN is a Subversion client, implemented as a Microsoft Windows shell extension. It is free software released under the GNU General Public License.TortoiseSVN won the SourceForge.net 2007 Community Choice Award for Best Tool or Utility for Developers....
  
  , a similar tool for use with Subversion, inspired by TortoiseCVS http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/
• TortoiseDarcs, a similar tool for use with Darcs
  Darcs
  Darcs is a distributed revision control system created by David Roundy; it was designed to replace traditional, centralized source control systems such as CVS and Subversion...
  
  , derived from TortoiseCVS http://tortoisedarcs.sourceforge.net/
• TortoiseBzr, a similar tool for use with Bazaar, inspired by TortoiseCVS and TortoiseSVN http://bazaar-vcs.org/TortoiseBzr
• TortoiseHg
  TortoiseHg
  TortoiseHg is a Mercurial revision control client, implemented as a Windows Explorer and Nautilus shell extension. The underlying client can be used on the command line...
  
  , a similar tool for Mercurial
  Mercurial (software)
  Mercurial is a cross-platform, distributed revision control tool for software developers. It is mainly implemented using the Python programming language, but includes a binary diff implementation written in C. It is supported on Windows and Unix-like systems, such as FreeBSD, Mac OS X and Linux...
  
   http://sourceforge.net/projects/tortoisehg.org
• TortoiseGit
  TortoiseGit
  TortoiseGit is a Git revision control client, implemented as a Microsoft Windows shell extension. It is free software released under the GNU General Public License.- See also :...
  
  , a port of TortoiseSVN to Git using msysgit http://code.google.com/p/tortoisegit
• git-cheetah, a similar tool for use with Git
  Git (software)
  Git is a distributed revision control system with an emphasis on speed. Git was initially designed and developed by Linus Torvalds for Linux kernel development. Every Git working directory is a full-fledged repository with complete history and full revision tracking capabilities, not dependent on...
  
   http://repo.or.cz/w/git-cheetah.git/
• Dubbelbock TFS is a similar tool for use with Team Foundation Server
  Team Foundation Server
  Team Foundation Server is a Microsoft product offering source control, data collection, reporting, and project tracking, and is intended for collaborative software development projects...
  
  http://www.benday.com/displaywebpage.aspx?itemid=43