[justoreply]

> I rarely build big projects, we usually create multiple small ones instead and if necessary reuse through artifactory or something, but unless I misunderstand you, this is exactly the same as Maven does in a multi module project, isn't it?

for example when when you change an api module in a multi module project, gradle will rebuild/test all the modules that depends on that: you can't do automatically with maven, if you have separate artifacts shared via a repository (at least for my understanding). You can use a reactor module, but maven is not caching efficiently in local builds and not caching at all from a common, distributed cache.

> But why should other developers have a relation to the source of dependencies except for debugging?

Because in a multi module project, each developer has access to the complete project source code and can change whatever module: this is the whole idea of the setup (monorepo idea as Google, for example). In this scenario it is possible to have fine grained module boundaries without the cost of creating new project or the evolution of the interface. If a module doesn't provide the information needed it is easy to change it and gradle will rebuild everything that depends on that. If a new module is needed, it is just a new directory with a build.gradle file in it.

Just to be clear, the end result of a multi module project, at least in my setup, is the creation of single artifact that is going to be deployed.

[eitland]

Thanks, I guess I am underestimating the complexities of monorepos.