Patent ID: 8527947

Claim:
A computer program product, comprising: a non-transitory computer-usable storage medium having stored therein computer-usable program code that, when executed by a computer, controls version branching within a software configuration management system (SCMS), the computer-usable program code include computer-usable program code that, responsive to a user initiating a check-out operation of a file within the SCMS, identifies the file and a workspace of the user; computer-usable program code that searches nodes of the repositories of the SCMS for a successor version of the file; computer-usable program code that, when a successor version of the file is located within a node that is within a predetermined distance of the workspace of the user, outputs a notification that the successor version of the file is within the predetermined distance of the workspace of the user; and computer-usable program code that, when a successor version of the file is not located within a node within a predetermined distance of the workspace of the user, checks-out the file to the workspace of the user.