should I copy .repo directory before or after build

I'm novice in android development and google's git-repo so please bear with me.

I found the this thread but it doesn't discuss about my question.

I'm working on to store the required android Q code (from our platform provider) downloaded from internet to local network storage so it is always available without dependency over internet.

Initially I though I could just download the code (108GB) and store it but later I noticed that after a successful build the .repo/ size has increased from 65GB to 82GB.

My question is, should I copy the .repo directory after the build or before? Do I even care about copying .repo knowing that our changes will be applied on top of this baseline source and will be stored in separate repo and we won't be pushing our codes to our providers repository.

The build process go though following steps, in case if it matter,

#1 Download code (108GB after this step)
   repo init ...
   repo sync ...
#2 Apply Development Kit Patches
#3 Extract the proprietary objs
#4 Build

repo size before android build,

408     ./libnativehelper
444     ./shortcut-fe
896     ./pdk
7648    ./platform_testing
15756   ./build
26944   ./dalvik
30028   ./sdk
44816   ./bionic
85916   ./art
87584   ./libcore
95424   ./hardware
104184  ./toolchain
151840  ./development
170412  ./device
216760  ./bootable
322228  ./vendor
411160  ./test
451172  ./developers
516392  ./system
887852  ./packages
963208  ./kernel
1456688 ./cts
1716288 ./tools
1979908 ./frameworks
8136144 ./external
27217100        ./prebuilts
67886120        ./.repo
112983332       .

repo size after android build,

4       ./disregard
408     ./libnativehelper
444     ./shortcut-fe
896     ./pdk
7648    ./platform_testing
16140   ./build
26944   ./dalvik
30028   ./sdk
44816   ./bionic
85916   ./art
87584   ./libcore
95424   ./hardware
104184  ./toolchain
151840  ./development
170420  ./device
216788  ./bootable
411160  ./test
451172  ./developers
516392  ./system
887840  ./packages
1347492 ./kernel
1456688 ./cts
1716220 ./tools
1979884 ./frameworks
2656404 ./vendor
8136032 ./external
27217036        ./prebuilts
85571884        ./.repo
153949272       ./out
287336968       .

I wonder though, Why the .repo size increased so much.

Solution

TL;DR In your case storing just .repo should be enough. Copying it to new folder and performing repo sync would inflate it and give you the entire code base.

You could look at this thread for some helpful information.