Binary repository manager

A binary repository manager is a software tool designed to optimize the download and storage of binary files used and produced in software development. It centralizes the management of all the binary artifacts generated and used by the organization to overcome the complexity arising from the diversity of binary artifact types, their position in the overall workflow and the dependencies between them.

A binary repository is a software repository for packages, artifacts and their corresponding metadata. It can be used to store binary files produced by an organization itself, such as product releases and nightly product builds, or for third party binaries which must be treated differently for both technical and legal reasons.

Software development can be a complex process involving many developers, or teams of developers working on shared code bases, accessing the same build tools, downloading and using a shared set of binary resources, and deploying components into the same software product. To manage the source files used in software development, organizations will typically use revision control. The many source files used in software development are eventually built into the binary artifacts (also known as “binaries”) which constitute the components of a software product. In addition, in order to provide their functionality and feature set, software products may use many 3rd party artifacts downloaded from free open source repositories or purchased from commercial sources. Consequently, a software product may comprise tens, hundreds and even thousands of individual binary artifacts which must be managed in order to efficiently maintain a coherent and functional software product. This function of managing the binary artifacts is done by a binary repository manager. A binary repository manager can be thought of as being to binaries what revision control is to source files.

The software and technology industry continues to change and grow, binary repository managers are no different. They are beginning to shift towards positioning as a universal package managers. These package managers aim to standardize the way enterprises treat all package types used in the software development process. They give users the ability to apply security and compliance metrics across all artifact types. Universal package managers have been referred to as being at the center of a DevOps toolchain.

Notable Universal package managers include:

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