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Google copybara: moving code between repositories

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Why This Matters

Google's Copybara is a vital tool for managing code synchronization across multiple repositories, especially in scenarios involving confidential and public codebases. Its ability to transform, move, and keep repositories in sync streamlines development workflows and enhances collaboration, making it highly valuable for large-scale or sensitive projects in the tech industry.

Key Takeaways

Copybara

A tool for transforming and moving code between repositories.

Copybara is a tool used internally at Google. It transforms and moves code between repositories.

Often, source code needs to exist in multiple repositories, and Copybara allows you to transform and move source code between these repositories. A common case is a project that involves maintaining a confidential repository and a public repository in sync.

Copybara requires you to choose one of the repositories to be the authoritative repository, so that there is always one source of truth. However, the tool allows contributions to any repository, and any repository can be used to cut a release.

The most common use case involves repetitive movement of code from one repository to another. Copybara can also be used for moving code once to a new repository.

Examples uses of Copybara include:

Importing sections of code from a confidential repository to a public repository.

Importing code from a public repository to a confidential repository.

Importing a change from a non-authoritative repository into the authoritative repository. When a change is made in the non-authoritative repository (for example, a contributor in the public repository), Copybara transforms and moves that change into the appropriate place in the authoritative repository. Any merge conflicts are dealt with in the same way as an out-of-date change within the authoritative repository.

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