Multi Repository Management Tool

• Installation
• Usage
• Cheat-Sheet
• Python API
• Alternatives

AnyRepo is a lightweight tool for creating and managing workspaces consisting of several interdependent git repositories. Starting from a main repository, AnyRepo discovers dependencies specified in a manifest file, fetching any specified required repositories and assembling them into a single workspace.

👉 You can read more about the used nomenclature in the documentation.

📦 Installation

AnyRepo is written in Python and - as usual - installing it is pretty easy:

pip install anyrepo

And that's it! Ideally, if your project also uses Python, we recommend adding AnyRepo as a dependency to it as well, so that you can track the exact version of it together with your other dependencies. For example, if you use poetry, add it by running

# Add AnyRepo as development dependency:
poetry add --group dev anyrepo

📔 Usage

AnyRepo comes with a command line client called anyrepo - this is what you will be using most of the time.

Let's assume we have a project called myapp, which requires a library mylib that is maintained in another git repository. In order to use this project with AnyRepo, myapp needs to provide a so called manifest. An AnyRepo manifest is a simple TOML file - by default called anyrepo.toml in the project's root folder - which defines the dependencies a project has as well as some other meta information. A minimal manifest for our project could look like this:

[[dependencies]]
name = "mylib"
url = "git@github.com:example/mylib.git"
revision = "v2.3.4"

If myapp and mylib are stored on the same server (side-by-side), than the manifest can even be simpler:

[[dependencies]]
name = "mylib"
revision = "v2.3.4"

The project will be searched via a relative path (which is either ../mylib or ../mylib.git depending on the main repository's URL). Relative paths are in general useful as they allow to use the same protocol for the main repository as well as any of its dependencies.

To build a workspace from a project prepared like that, simply clone it via anyrepo:

cd $HOME/Projects
mkdir my_app_workspace
cd my_app_workspace
anyrepo clone --update git@github.com:example/myapp.git

👉 Without the --update option, only the main repository will be fetched.

The above will clone the app repository and also the library side-by-side:

ls -a
# Should print something like
# . .. .anyrepo myapp mylib

As you can see, besides the two repositories we wanted, there is also a hidden .anyrepo folder where the tool stores the needed configuration data.

Sometimes there are use cases where using anyrepo clone cannot be used. For example, when a CI/CD system creates the initial clone of the main repository, you may need a way to fetch the remaining projects. This can be done by simply running the following within the main project:

anyrepo init --update

👉 As with anyrepo clone, without the --update, no dependencies will be fetched.

Another important use case is keeping a workspace up-to-date. Lets say you pull in an update in the main repository, which in turn might cause changes in the manifest to be pulled in as well. Updating the existing workspace is as simple as

# Update the workspace (main and all dependent repositories):
anyrepo update

# Alternatively, run `git rebase` instead of `git pull` in dependencies:
anyrepo update --rebase

Cheat-Sheet

🐍 Python API

AnyRepo is written in Python. Besides the anyrepo command line tool, there is also an API which you can use to further automate workspace creation and maintenance. If you are interested, have a look into the API documentation.

🤝 Alternatives

Before writing AnyRepo, we investigates several other existing tools in the hope they would fulfil out needs. In particular, we looked into the following tools and methodologies which are widely used to organize large projects:

• git submodules.
• Google's repo tool.
• The west tool developed in the scope of Zephyr.
• Leaving the pure git domain, one can also use a package manager like conan.
• And lastly, there are also approaches to still pack everything into a large so called monorepo.

Unfortunately, none of the tools we tested really satisfied us. But hey, as we are developers - why not starting our own tool for the purpose?

And that's what we did - AnyRepo is a our tool for managing a large workspace consisting of several smaller git projects. Here is how it compares to the other tools we evaluated:

👉 Please note that our view on the various features might be biased. As we did, always look at all the options available to you before deciding for one tool or the other. While the other tools in comparison did not model what we needed for our workflow, they might just be what you are looking for.

If you want to learn more, have a look into the documentation.