[[!comment format=mdwn
 username="joey"
 subject="""comment 8"""
 date="2021-04-01T19:41:10Z"
 content="""
How about this as a compromise that avoids any unwanted code execution
while making it easy to enable if you do want it:

When git-annex enables an external special remote (including autoenable),
and the special remote program is not available in PATH, and a git config
(call it annex.special-remote-installer) is set to a command, git-annex
runs that command with the name of the special remote program it wanted to
install. The command should install the special remote program into a
particular subdirectory in .git/annex/, and git-annex will then use it.

It would then be up to users to decide if they want to set that git config,
or if something is being built on top of git-annex and sets up the git repo
for them, it could set the config to point to whatever command it provides
to install special remote programs.

This also has the benefit of not tying git-annex to any particular
technology like docker.
"""]]
