Why Google stores billions of lines of code in a single repository (2016)
I&#x27;ve worked with both a distributed repo model and a monorepo model and vastly prefer the distributed approach (given the right tooling). The trade-offs are complementary and no doubt with proper discipline you can try to maximize the benefits, while minimizing the downside. But here&#x27;s what I don&#x27;t like about working in a large monorepo:<p>1) Difficult to track changes to the code I&#x27;m interested in. Every day there are hundreds of changes in the repo and almost all of them have nothing to do with what I&#x27;m working on.<p>2) all sorts of operations take longer (pulling, grepping source, etc.) to support code I couldn&#x27;t care less about.<p>3) Frequently have to update the world at once. Unless the repo can store multiple versions of the same module, then all the consumers have to be updated at once, even if it&#x27;s inconvenient. Sometimes migrations are better done gradually.<p>4) Encourages sloppy dependency management. There are frequently unclear boundaries between software layers.<p>I&#x27;m sure people will say &quot;if you&#x27;re having those problems, you&#x27;re doing it wrong&quot; but the same thing could be said to people who find the distributed model problematic.