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ipsi · 2017-09-01 20:05:42

As does Microsoft: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/bharry/2017/05/24/the-large...

therealmarv | karma 4384 | avg karma 2.58 · | 2018-07-25 12:37:34+00:00

Unless you change git like Microsoft did: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/bharry/2017/05/24/the-large...

zamobo | karma 1 | avg karma 1.0 · | 2018-06-04 09:22:23+00:00

was this when they decided, nah fk it let s just aquire the thing https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/bharry/2017/05/24/the-large...

lev99 | karma 1287 | avg karma 2.32 · | 2018-03-26 17:20:24+00:00

I've heard many people claim Microsoft has the largest git repo and I've never heard anyone successfully dispute that claim.

ryanburk | karma 349 | avg karma 2.6 · | 2017-09-05 11:33:00

they have definitely changed the source control infrastructure and are now on git.

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/bharry/2017/05/24/the-large...

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jononor | karma 3534 | avg karma 1.84 · | 2021-04-28 00:56:55+00:00

I belive the entire Windows codebase is in a git monorepo now, for some years: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/bharry/the-largest-git-repo-o...

jcranmer | karma 30697 | avg karma 4.25 · | 2020-08-18 01:55:31+00:00

> the complete editing history of the Linux kernel (probably the largest Git repo ever created)

Linux is definitely not the largest git repo ever created [0]. The big corporate monorepos are definitely larger; I know MS has moved Windows to git, and itself claims it to be the largest ever created (~300GB as of 2017, per [1]). Google and Facebook both eschew git, though.

Finding data on the largest open repos is more difficult. The largest classes of projects are those that develop in monorepos that implement critical operating system [2] functionality, browser engines, and compiler implementations. The shortlist I'd make comes out to these projects (in no particular order):

* gcc

* LLVM

* Mozilla

* Chromium

* Linux

* OpenJDK

I haven't finished downloading all of these repos (my disk is begging me to stop right now), but it looks Linux is larger than gecko-dev by a very thin margin (so a putative gecko-dev that included comm-central with its CVS history as well would easily outstrip Linux), and Chromium seems to be an order of magnitude over both.

[0] To be clear here, I'm mostly thinking in terms of primarily textual repositories. Repositories with large binary assets are clearly not relevant for your means.

[1] https://devblogs.microsoft.com/bharry/the-largest-git-repo-o..., although https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14411724 claims that the 300 GB measures the size of the checked-out directory on disk, not the putative size of a full .git folder.

[2] I'm including both kernel roles as well as key userspace roles. Qt and Gnome would both be on my list of putative largest repos were they monorepos, but they appear to use many small repos instead.

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antiuniverse | karma 218 | avg karma 5.74 · | 2019-04-14 18:35:11

Keep in mind that to manage the insane scale, Microsoft internally hides git behind a custom virtual file system:

https://vfsforgit.org/

https://github.com/Microsoft/VFSForGit

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slobotron | karma 846 | avg karma 8.38 · | 2018-06-28 06:43:00+00:00

Interesting tidbit:

> The developers making Microsoft Windows use Git

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Fill1200 | karma 6 | avg karma 0.86 · | 2018-06-01 22:56:19

Google and Facebook don't use Git. Microsoft really loves Git and GitHub.

naughtysriram | karma 15 | avg karma 0.19 · | 2012-05-05 06:57:39+00:00

I din't know Microsoft used git. Lolz.

pjmlp | karma 109153 | avg karma 1.76 · | 2020-04-27 11:41:29+00:00

Microsoft does definitely use git, monorepo I am not so sure.

jhasse | karma 2231 | avg karma 1.27 · | 2018-09-20 08:48:45

Or Microsoft (Windows is using Git).

manigandham | karma 24990 | avg karma 2.69 · | 2018-09-10 18:33:44+00:00

Considering how comparatively rare it is, it's unlikely to ever be supported natively. Microsoft has invested a lot into git and now uses it for the Windows codebase, which is the largest repo by several magnitudes.

Arelius | karma 1728 | avg karma 1.62 · | 2012-02-03 22:41:42+00:00

Most companies of this size don't use git. ;)

jmacd | karma 4099 | avg karma 6.52 · | 2013-11-13 17:24:02+00:00

It's worth pointing out that they have Git support built in as well.

perezd | karma 382 | avg karma 4.29 · | 2009-07-02 07:09:40+00:00

reminds me of a certain hub, that uses git.

rtcoolaid | karma 0 | avg karma 0.0 · | 2018-06-28 04:37:23

You are actually right and down voters have no clue (and this is what I hate about HN, if you don't comment then don't downvoye)

To answer your question though - Microsoft has a lot of git extensions that they are slowly submitting upstream. Hence git is usable for their megarepo.

Look up GVFS on GitHub, very cool work.

Same for Twitter (they are not submitting upstream though as far as I know)

Similar for fb/mercurial

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mathgenius | karma 10177 | avg karma 5.93 · | 2016-03-20 16:37:13+00:00

Nice how they cite their git repository in the references.

spiralx | karma 659 | avg karma 0.71 · | 2018-06-05 20:56:27+00:00

Something this article goes into in more detail with regards to Git:

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/devops/2017/05/30/optimizin...

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