[[!comment format=mdwn
 username="yarikoptic"
 avatar="http://cdn.libravatar.org/avatar/f11e9c84cb18d26a1748c33b48c924b4"
 subject="found it"
 date="2019-09-20T18:56:52Z"
 content="""
see [datalad/issues/139](https://github.com/datalad/datalad/issues/139#issuecomment-97948143). Quoting a part of it:

*But I'd like to investigate adding --batch to individual commands first,
since this seems more git-like, and also simpler. It would probably be
helpful to talk about the specific commands you need to call a lot.*

*Things like `git annex lookupkey --batch`, `git-annex readpresentkey --batch`
etc should be able to be spun up and run as long-duration servers, which
you could query as needed, not batched up all at once. This is how
git-annex uses `git cat-file --batch` etc.*

*There's some potential for such a long-running command to either
buffer stale data so it doesn't answer with the current state of the
repository, or for it to buffer changes and not commit them to disk
immediately. For example, a `git annex add --batch` would have the
latter problem.*

*That is actually an argument for only adding --batch mode to specific
commands though, since that would be an opportunity to check thier
behavior. A single `git-annex shell` interface would expose any such
problems in all commands.*
"""]]
