What is the purpose of version control?

Version control serves the essential function of tracking changes to a project over time. This system allows teams and individuals to maintain a history of their work, documenting modifications made to files and projects across various iterations. By keeping this record, version control facilitates collaboration, enabling multiple users to work on the same codebase without conflicts, and allows the retrieval of previous versions if needed.

Moreover, it assists in understanding how a project evolves, providing insights into the reasoning behind certain changes and making it easier to identify when and why bugs are introduced. This historical context is invaluable for both current project maintenance and long-term project management.

In summary, the main purpose of version control is to record and manage every change made to a project, thereby supporting collaboration and improving project oversight. Other options, while related to software development or data management, do not encapsulate the fundamental role that version control plays in managing project changes.