TLDR Web Dev · ARTICLES & TUTORIALS

THE STORY OF REFORMATTING 100K FILES AT GOOGLE IN 2012

laurent.le-brun.eu6 min read

Summary from the TLDR Web Dev newsletter

In 2012, Google embarked on a project to reformat all Bazel BUILD files, which was tough because of inconsistent formatting and a variety of developer preferences. A new tool called Buildifier, which strictly enforced a unified style, was developed to automate this process. The rollout was successful - it allowed for better code maintenance and enabled large-scale changes that were previously considered impossible.