git-annex/doc/git-annex-enableremote.mdwn

# NAME

git-annex enableremote - enables use of an existing special remote

# SYNOPSIS

git annex enableremote `name [param=value ...]`

# DESCRIPTION

Enables use of an existing special remote in the current repository,
which may be a different repository than the one in which it was
originally created with the initremote command.

The name of the remote is the same name used when originally
creating that remote with `git annex initremote`. Run 
`git annex enableremote` without any name to get a list of
special remote names.
  
Some special remotes may need parameters to be specified every time they are
enabled. For example, the directory special remote requires a directory=
parameter every time.

This command can also be used to modify the configuration of an existing
special remote, by specifying new values for parameters that are
usually set when using initremote. (However, some settings such as
the as the encryption scheme cannot be changed once a special remote
has been created.)

The GPG keys that an encrypted special remote is encrypted with can be
changed using the keyid+= and keyid-= parameters. These respectively
add and remove keys from the list. However, note that removing a key
does NOT necessarily prevent the key's owner from accessing data
in the encrypted special remote
(which is by design impossible, short of deleting the remote).
  
One use-case of keyid-= is to replace a revoked key with
a new key:
  
	git annex enableremote mys3 keyid-=revokedkey keyid+=newkey
  
Also, note that for encrypted special remotes using plain public-key
encryption (encryption=pubkey), adding or removing a key has NO effect
on files that have already been copied to the remote. Hence using
keyid+= and keyid-= with such remotes should be used with care, and
make little sense except in cases like the revoked key example above.

If you get tired of manually enabling a special remote in each new clone,
you can pass "autoenable=true". Then when [[git-annex-init]](1) is run in
a new clone, it will will attempt to enable the special remote. Of course,
this works best when the special remote does not need anything special
to be done to get it enabled.

# SEE ALSO

[[git-annex]](1)

[[git-annex-initremote]](1)

# AUTHOR

Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name>

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