git-annex/doc/todo/deferred_update_mode.mdwn

`git annex sync` and the assistant do a merge of new revs, and then
download the content of files. However, this means that broken links can
show up, when a file has changed, or a new file was added. In some
workflows, the user would prefer not to ever see such broken links
(or at least never for files that are in the repo's preferred content).

So, how about a new mode, that defers updating the work tree until
the content of everything wanted is available?

This could be a annex.merge=downloadfirst setting; it would make sync/assistant
look at the diff between HEAD and the new rev, and try to get all annexed files
added in that diff, before merging it. 

Of course, it could take a long time to get to see a new work tree.
Might have to download a lot of content.

What to do if it fails to download a file's content? Could either
abort, leaving the current work tree as-is, or could go ahead and merge,
letting broken links show up in this case. I kind of prefer the abort
option. But, if the content never reaches any remote, or has gone missing
entirely, that would make sync never succeed. That could be surprising
behavior.

Probably best to let the user pick either behavior, so
annex.merge=trydownloadfirst and annex.merge=reqdownloadfirst

Let `git annex merge` be used to force a merge, even when content is not
available.

## alternatively

What about just making `git-annex sync --content` try to get the content of
all files before updating the work tree? (The assistant would need changes
too; it would need to queue all the downloads and trigger a work tree
update once all the downloads have been tried.)

> `git-annex adjust --hide-missing` implements this. The assistant
> does not support it yet, and there's a todo for that,
> [[todo/assistant_support_hide-missing]]
> 
> So, closing this as there's a path forward in that other todo. [[done]]
> --[[Joey]]