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A version control system is a package that can record multiple versions of a source file, storing information such as the creation time of each version, who created it, and a description of what was changed in that version.
The Emacs version control interface is called VC. Its commands work with several different version control systems; currently, it supports GNU Arch, Bazaar, CVS, Git, Mercurial, Monotone, RCS, SCCS/CSSC, and Subversion. Of these, the GNU project distributes CVS, GNU Arch, RCS, and Bazaar.
VC is enabled automatically whenever you visit a file that is
governed by a version control system. To disable VC entirely, set the
customizable variable vc-handled-backends to nil
(see Customizing VC).