Why does google-api-dotnet-client BuildRelease.exe clone the entire contrib repository

Question

BuildRelease will clone the entire contrib repository. What is the purpose of doing this? It slows down the build process.

Answer 1

The reason for that is based on the fact that we store all the version history in contrib repository. When we create a new build of Google.Apis, we add a new folder with the content of the release (e.g. 1.3.0-beta).

We use BuildRelease.exe mainly to create a new release of the library, so out of curiosity - why do you use it?