git-annex/doc/special_remotes/directory.mdwn

This special remote type stores file contents in directory.

One use case for this would be if you have a removable drive that
you want to use to sneakernet files between systems (possibly with
[[encrypted|encryption]] contents). Just set up both systems to use
the drive's mountpoint as a directory remote.

Note that directory remotes have a special directory structure
(by design, the same as the [[rsync|rsync]] remote).
If you just want two copies of your repository with the files "visible"
in the tree in both, the directory special remote is not what you want.
Instead, you should use a regular `git clone` of your git-annex repository.

## configuration

These parameters can be passed to `git annex initremote` to configure the
remote:

* `directory` - The path to the directory where the files should be stored
  for the remote. The directory must already exist. Typically this will
  be an empty directory, or a directory already used as a directory remote.

* `encryption` - One of "none", "hybrid", "shared", or "pubkey".
  See [[encryption]].

* `keyid` - Specifies the gpg key to use for [[encryption]].

* `chunk` - Enables [[chunking]] when storing large files.

* `chunksize` - Deprecated version of chunk parameter above.  
  Do not use for new remotes. It is not safe to change the chunksize
  setting of an existing remote.

* `exporttree` - Set to "yes" to make this special remote usable
  by [[git-annex-export]]. It will not be usable as a general-purpose
  special remote.

* `importtree` - Set to "yes" to make this special remote usable
  by [[git-annex-import]]. It will not be usable as a general-purpose
  special remote.

* `ignoreinodes` - Usually when importing, the inode numbers
  of files are used to detect when files have changed. Since some
  filesystems generate new inode numbers each time they are mounted,
  that can lead to extra work being done. Setting this to "yes" will
  ignore the inode numbers and so avoid that extra work.
  This should not be used when the filesystem has stable inode numbers,
  as it does risk confusing two files that have the same size and mtime.

Setup example:

	# git annex initremote usbdrive type=directory directory=/media/usbdrive/ encryption=none
	# git annex describe usbdrive "usb drive on /media/usbdrive/"