A binary repository is a [[software repository]] for packages, artifacts and their corresponding metadata. It can be used to store binaries produced by an organization itself, such as releases and nightly builds, or for third party binaries which must be treated differently for both technical and legal reasons.
=== Artifacts and Packagespackages ===
PackagesArtifacts and Artifactpackages inherently mean different things. Artifacts are simply an output or collection of files (ex. JAR, WAR, DLLS, RPM etc.) and one of those files may contain metadata (eg. POM file). Whereas packages are a single archive file ofin a well-defined format (ex. [[NuGet]]) that contain files appropriate for the package type (ex. DLL, PDB).<ref name="sharedlibrary">{{Cite journal| last = Chris | first = Tucker | title = Optimal Package Install/Uninstall Manager | publisher = UC San Diego | date = 2007-03-15| page=1 | url = http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~lerner/papers/opium.pdf | accessdate = 2011-09-14}}</ref> Many artifacts result from builds but other types are crucial as well.. PackagePackages are essentially one of two things: a library or an application.<ref>{{Cite web| title=Linux repository classification schemes | url=http://braintickle.blogspot.com/2006/01/linux-repository-classification.html|publisher=braintickle.blogspot.com | accessdate=2008-03-01}}</ref>
Compared to source files, binary artifacts are often larger by orders of magnitude, they are rarely deleted or overwritten (except for rare cases such as snapshots or nightly builds), and they are usually accompanied by lots of metadata such as id, package name, version, license and more.
