What is the value-add of Repo (+git)?

Question

The Repo (a wrapper of git) isn't described in much details, where I found it, except to say:

Repo is a tool that we built on top of Git. Repo helps us manage the many Git repositories, does the uploads to our revision control system , and automates parts of the Android development workflow. Repo is not meant to replace Git, only to make it easier to work with Git in the context of Android.

… For example, with a single Repo command you can download files from multiple repositories into your local working directory.

What advantages or efficiencies does Repo add? When might it be useful to add to a project's toolchain?

Answer 1

repo is designed to make it easily to work with commands across multiple independent git repositories as well as manage specific device configurations by managing the git's included in the manifest.

For instance in Android

There is a kernel git repository framework git repository etc etc---over a hundred.

Repo always you to 1.) Run git commands across the whole collection easily 2.) Allows you to fine tune configurations by changing the repo manifest. (For instance maybe you wanted one device to be built with a new google apk but another device shouldn't have it.) In android you don't really manage that with conditional compilation, but rather you control the manifest as to what git's are actually in the product.

It doesn't really do anything that clever scripting can't accomplish for you, it is just all there ready to go. When I worked on android I mostly used git natively, but there is certainly a need for it in a project laid out like android (IE >100 independent repositories that are pulled from multiple location).