Monorepos can be a great force for fostering rapid development workflows. But, are they the right fit for you, your team, and your company?<\/p>\n
Not everyone agrees on a single definition for\u00a0monorepo<\/i>. Some may only accept the term when it applies to companies hosting\u00a0all\u00a0<\/i>their code in a single repository. Google is the most famous example of this; their monorepo is theorized to be the largest code repository in the world, which has thousands of commits per day and exceeds 80 TB<\/a>s in size.<\/p>\n More relaxed definitions will say that\u00a0a monorepo is a version-controlled code repository holding a number of independently-deployable projects<\/i>. While these projects may be related, they are often separate, logically-independent, and run by different teams. For instance, Airbnb has two monorepos: one for the frontend code<\/a> and one for the backend code<\/a>. In this way, a company or organization can utilize multiple monorepos.<\/p>\n Monorepos are sometimes also called\u00a0monolithic repositories<\/i>, but they should not be confused with\u00a0monolithic architecture<\/i>, a software development practice for writing centralized applications using a single codebase. To give one example to these kinds of architectures, think of a Ruby on Rails<\/a> application handling websites, API endpoints<\/a>, and background jobs all at once.<\/p>\n The opposite of the monorepo is a\u00a0multirepo<\/i>, or simply\u00a0repos<\/i>, where each project is held on a completely separate, version-controlled software repository. Multirepos come naturally \u2014 it\u2019s what we do when starting a new project. After all, who doesn\u2019t like starting fresh?<\/p>\n Moving from multi to monorepo is merely a matter of moving all your projects into a single repository.<\/p>\n $ mkdir monorepo Of course, this is just to get started. The hard work comes later, when we get into refactoring and consolidation. To enjoy the full benefits of a monorepo, all shareable code should be moved outside of each project folder and into a common location.<\/p>\n Multirepos are not a synonym for\u00a0microservices<\/i>. In fact, having one does not require using the other. Later, we\u2019ll discuss companies using monorepos\u00a0with\u00a0<\/i>microservices. A monorepo can host any number of microservices as long as you carefully set up your Continuous Integration and Delivery (CI\/CD) pipeline1 for deployment.<\/p>\n At first glance, the choice between monorepos and multirepos might not seem like a big deal. On closer inspection, however, it\u2019s a decision that deeply influences how you and your team interact.<\/p>\n Monorepos have the following benefits:<\/p>\n1.2 Monorepos vs. Multirepos\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
\n$ git init
\n$ mv ~\/src\/app-android10 ~\/src\/app-android11 ~\/src\/app-ios .
\n$ git add -A
\n$ git commit -m “My first monorepo”<\/p>\n1.3 What Monorepos Bring to the Table\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
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