One common situation the Revision Control System (RCS) can help users with is when they want to create backup copies. These backup copies can be for keeping old versions or as a precaution against losing your changes.

Copying a file to a different name suffices to create versions and keep old copies. However, a few small modifications in a file often does not warrant the renaming of the file. Maintaining nearly duplicate copies of a file is a poor use of computer storage space. Homebrewed solutions of renaming files to file.old, file.bak, file.bak2 or some other variant is a weak system for describing the differences. Further, certain situations require a specific file name or file name extension. Renaming files is an inadequate way to maintain multiple versions of a file.