How should I organize multiple related applications using git?

Question

I'm beginning work on a project that will consist of a Ruby on Rails web application, an Android application, an iOS application, and a marketing website for these projects. I'm not quite sure how I want to structure this in source control.

I'm using git (and GitHub) and I'm thinking I want all of the code in a single repository because I want to make use of the wiki and issues lists on GitHub without having a lot of separate projects to go to on GitHub. However, it seems to me like it would be simpler to have each application be in its own repository.

What are the considerations here? What's the best approach? Is there a "correct" approach here?

Answer 1

I think having a repository per project is the best option to go. I understand the issue about wikis and issues - nothing prevents from from disabling them except on the main repository (which could be the website, or else), and to tell users in the readme where to go for informations and to file bugs.

But I think that you'll want to have issues tracker for each project : they'll probably have different life cycles, the same people won't be involved, etc. It's pretty common for big projects to split themselves into smaller ones, easier to maintain.

I can't think of a reason good enough for having only one repository, when your project is already consisting of several and obvious subprojects.

Answer 2

Whatever feels best for you .. I just started a project with a server and iOS, WinPhone and Android client in one repository and so far I don't have any trouble with this, but it is just a two person project... Generally I would go with one repository per sub-project