How does Confluence store changes?
Asked by jimmo42:

We are considering using Confluence to manage our documentation. One objection was the claim that Confluence stores the complete page when it is changed as opposed to simply a delta. This can be a problem when large pages are frequently changed. We can minimize the problem by breaking down the documentation into smaller sections. However, I am curious if Confluence really does store the entire page.


Answers:
author: Jeremy M
body: Dear James,

Confluence does indeed save an entire page, but you can actually revert back to a certain ''version'' of a page in Confluence. Say someone made a change that you do not like.

Confluence also allows you to store ''drafts''. Basicly typing a document without saving, returning to it later and finding your work was saved.

I am happy to answer any other questions about Atlassian products for you.

Friendly Regards,

Jeremy Mooiman

comments: author: jimmo42
body: Hi Jeremy!  
Thanks for your quick reply. So if I save the page repeatedly as I was editing it, there would be multiple files? I understand that you can save a draft by clicking on "close", but I am trying to consider all aspects.  

Is there a way to "archive" older versions, for example saving them to a different disk to save space? The reason I am asking is that one of the objections to using Confluence for our documentation is the fact that each page is saved and eventually that could take up a lot of space. While each document ist edited fairly regularly (ca. twice a month), individual sections might only be changed once a year or even less often. Breaking the documents into small sections reduces the amount that get saved each time, but the more appealing I can make it the more likely I can convince my boss.

Is there anyway of saving a page **without** creating a new version?


author: Steven F Behnke
body: That's not a real objection. I've administrated several large, legacy Confluence instances. The disk space usage is normal for what we'd expect of an application this size. The Attachments on the pages greatly outweigh the content of pages.

In my current Confluence instance, we have 60,000 pages and 1.8 million versions. This instance has been running for 6+ years. Performance is fine and disk space is not an issue we bump up against.


author: Jeremy M
body: Dear James,

Indeed! There are multiple files for those ''versions'' they are stored just like the current version (Else they would not be able to get reverted).

There is no function to simply ''archive'' older versions.. however.. you could copy them and put them somewhere in an archive space / page tree ofcourse.

And regarding to your question:

*The reason I am asking is that one of the objections to using Confluence for our documentation is the fact that each page is saved and eventually that could take up a lot of space. While each document ist edited fairly regularly (ca. twice a month), individual sections might only be changed once a year or even less often. Breaking the documents into small sections reduces the amount that get saved each time, but the more appealing I can make it the more likely I can convince my boss. Is there anyway of saving a page **without** creating a new version?*

Actually.. for your scenario there are multiple ''macros'' that will serve you well. If you only need a specific ''section'' to be editted then you could create an ''Excerpt Macro'' on one page and include that ''Excerpt'' content into another page. Doing this.. you will not actually edit your original page but only the page holding the ''Excerpted'' content.

Friendly Regards,

Jeremy Mooiman