git-annex/doc/design/roadmap.mdwn

git-annex is in a mode of continual user-driven improvement, involving numerous
small issues and often easily implemented ideas.

Here are some larger/ongoing plans for git-annex, in no particular order.

Speed improvements, including:

* Speed up git checkout in v7 repository by 
  improving git's smudge/clean filter interface, or some other approach, to avoid needing to fork
  git-annex once per file during the checkout.
  <https://git-annex.branchable.com/todo/git_smudge_clean_interface_suboptiomal/>
  <https://git-annex.branchable.com/todo/Long_Running_Filter_Process/>

* Speed up git-annex branch data queries and updates by rewriting it to
  use ByteStrings. May become an order of magnitude faster. Using
  libgit2 to access data from the branch w/o using the git interface
  may also improve speed.

* Improve speed of git-annex when operating on large numbers of files.
  Approaches include better caching of data, and switching to packed
  FilePaths and other better data structures.

* Enable parallelism by default.
  <https://git-annex.branchable.com/todo/config_option_to_use_all_processors_by_default/>

Improvements to tree export support, including supporting export to more
external special remotes, exporting only preferred content, more
efficient renames, and improving support for exporting non-annexed files.
<https://git-annex.branchable.com/todo/export_preferred_content/>
<https://git-annex.branchable.com/todo/export_paired_rename_innefficenctcy/>
<https://git-annex.branchable.com/todo/Exporting_with_exporttree_should_sync_files_deleted_from_the_remote/>

Complimenting tree export, support importing trees from special remotes so eg a
S3 bucket of data can be pulled into a git-annex repository easily, and the
repository updated when the bucket is changed.
<https://git-annex.branchable.com/todo/import_tree/>

Improve support for branches where annexed files without content locally
present are hidden (adjust --hide-missing). Including interface for
operating on hidden files to get them, speeding up generation of the
branch, and updating it more frequently.
<https://git-annex.branchable.com/todo/better_way_to_get_missing_files/>
Also unify adjusted branches and view branches.
<https://git-annex.branchable.com/todo/unify_adjust_with_view/>

Improve Windows support. Long filenames may be possible on Windows now
thanks to fixes in recent versions of ghc. Further improve using
git-annex in Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Get Windows fully
supported with no caveats. Possibly even supporting indirect mode with
symlinks.
<https://git-annex.branchable.com/todo/windows_support/>
<https://git-annex.branchable.com/todo/utilising_the_mklink_command_on_windows_to_utilise_symlinks_and_therefore_indirect_mode_on_windows/>

Add more special remotes, and/or ship a collection of existing external
special remotes as part of git-annex. Improve existing special remotes,
eg adding support for Glacier lifecycles to S3.
<https://git-annex.branchable.com/todo/wishlist__58___Restore_s3_files_moved_to_Glacier/>

Deltas to improve transfer of modified versions of files.
<https://git-annex.branchable.com/design/assistant/deltas/>