git-annex/doc/git-annex-mincopies.mdwn

# NAME

git-annex mincopies - configure minimum number of copies

# SYNOPSIS

git annex mincopies `N`

# DESCRIPTION

Tells git-annex how many copies it is required to preserve of files, over all
repositories. The default is 1.

Run without a number to get the current value.

This configuration is stored in the git-annex branch, so it will be seen
by all clones of the repository. It can be overridden on a per-file basis
by the annex.mincopies setting in .gitattributes files, or can be
overridden temporarily with the --mincopies option.

This supplements the [[git-annex-numcopies]](1) setting. 
In unusual situations, involving special remotes that do not support
locking, and concurrent drops of the same content from multiple
repositories, git-annex may violate the numcopies setting.
In these unusual situations, git-annex ensures that the number of copies
never goes below mincopies.

It is a good idea to not only rely on only setting mincopies. Set
numcopies as well, to a larger number, and keep mincopies at the
bare minimum you're comfortable with. Setting mincopies to a large
number, rather than setting numcopies will in some cases prevent
droping content in entirely safe situations.

# OPTIONS

* The [[git-annex-common-options]](1) can be used.

# SEE ALSO

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

# AUTHOR

Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name>

Warning: Automatically converted into a man page by mdwn2man. Edit with care.
mincopies This is conceptually very simple, just making a 1 that was hard coded be exposed as a config option. The hard part was plumbing all that, and dealing with complexities like reading it from git attributes at the same time that numcopies is read. Behavior change: When numcopies is set to 0, git-annex used to drop content without requiring any copies. Now to get that (highly unsafe) behavior, mincopies also needs to be set to 0. It seemed better to remove that edge case, than complicate mincopies by ignoring it when numcopies is 0. This commit was sponsored by Denis Dzyubenko on Patreon. 2021-01-06 18:11:08 +00:00			`# NAME`

			`git-annex mincopies - configure minimum number of copies`

			`# SYNOPSIS`

			git annex mincopies `N`

			`# DESCRIPTION`

			`Tells git-annex how many copies it is required to preserve of files, over all`
			`repositories. The default is 1.`

			`Run without a number to get the current value.`

			`This configuration is stored in the git-annex branch, so it will be seen`
			`by all clones of the repository. It can be overridden on a per-file basis`
			`by the annex.mincopies setting in .gitattributes files, or can be`
			`overridden temporarily with the --mincopies option.`

			`This supplements the [[git-annex-numcopies]](1) setting.`
			`In unusual situations, involving special remotes that do not support`
			`locking, and concurrent drops of the same content from multiple`
			`repositories, git-annex may violate the numcopies setting.`
improve wording 2021-01-06 18:24:17 +00:00			`In these unusual situations, git-annex ensures that the number of copies`
			`never goes below mincopies.`
mincopies This is conceptually very simple, just making a 1 that was hard coded be exposed as a config option. The hard part was plumbing all that, and dealing with complexities like reading it from git attributes at the same time that numcopies is read. Behavior change: When numcopies is set to 0, git-annex used to drop content without requiring any copies. Now to get that (highly unsafe) behavior, mincopies also needs to be set to 0. It seemed better to remove that edge case, than complicate mincopies by ignoring it when numcopies is 0. This commit was sponsored by Denis Dzyubenko on Patreon. 2021-01-06 18:11:08 +00:00
check mincopies is satisfied even when numcopies is known to be satisfied I had been assuming that numcopies would be a larger or at most equal to mincopies, so no need to check both. But users get confused and use configs that don't really make sense, so make sure to handle mincopies being larger than numcopies. Also add something to the mincopies man page to discourage this misconfiguration. This commit was sponsored by Denis Dzyubenko on Patreon. 2021-04-27 17:37:03 +00:00			`It is a good idea to not only rely on only setting mincopies. Set`
			`numcopies as well, to a larger number, and keep mincopies at the`
			`bare minimum you're comfortable with. Setting mincopies to a large`
			`number, rather than setting numcopies will in some cases prevent`
			`droping content in entirely safe situations.`

split out common options to its own page and mention it on each subcommand page Sometimes users would get confused because an option they were looking for was not mentioned on a subcommand's man page, and they had not noticed that the main git-annex man page had a list of common options. This change lets each subcommand mention the common options, similarly to how the matching options are handled. This commit was sponsored by Svenne Krap on Patreon. 2021-05-10 19:00:13 +00:00			`# OPTIONS`

			`* The [[git-annex-common-options]](1) can be used.`

mincopies This is conceptually very simple, just making a 1 that was hard coded be exposed as a config option. The hard part was plumbing all that, and dealing with complexities like reading it from git attributes at the same time that numcopies is read. Behavior change: When numcopies is set to 0, git-annex used to drop content without requiring any copies. Now to get that (highly unsafe) behavior, mincopies also needs to be set to 0. It seemed better to remove that edge case, than complicate mincopies by ignoring it when numcopies is 0. This commit was sponsored by Denis Dzyubenko on Patreon. 2021-01-06 18:11:08 +00:00			`# SEE ALSO`

			`[[git-annex]](1)`
			`[[git-annex-numcopies]](1)`

			`# AUTHOR`

			`Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name>`

			`Warning: Automatically converted into a man page by mdwn2man. Edit with care.`