found a way to make uninit always fast

To do so, I slightly changed the behavior of unannex. Now in fast mode, it
only makes a hard link when the annexed file's link count is 1. This avoids
unannexing 2 files with the same content in fast mode from hard linking
them together. (One will end up hard linked to the annex, which the docs
warn about.)

With that change, uninit can simply always run unannex in fast mode. Since
.git/annex/objects is being blown away anyway, there's no worry in this
case about a hard link pointing into it causing an annexed object to be
modified.

Command/Unannex.hs

@@ -75,7 +75,16 @@ cleanupIndirect :: FilePath -> Key -> CommandCleanup
 cleanupIndirect file key = do
 	src <- calcRepo $ gitAnnexLocation key
 	ifM (Annex.getState Annex.fast)
-		( hardlinkfrom src
+		( do
+			-- Only make a hard link if the annexed file does not
+			-- already have other hard links pointing at it.
+			-- This avoids unannexing (and uninit) ending up
+			-- hard linking files together, which would be
+			-- surprising.
+			s <- liftIO $ getFileStatus src
+			if linkCount s > 1
+				then copyfrom src
+				else hardlinkfrom src
 		, copyfrom src
 		)
   where

Command/Uninit.hs

@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 module Command.Uninit where
 
 import Common.Annex
+import qualified Annex
 import Command
 import qualified Git
 import qualified Git.Command
@@ -37,6 +38,7 @@ check = do
 seek :: CommandSeek
 seek ps = do
 	withFilesNotInGit False (whenAnnexed startCheckIncomplete) ps
+	Annex.changeState $ \s -> s { Annex.fast = True }
 	withFilesInGit (whenAnnexed Command.Unannex.start) ps
 	finish
 

debian/changelog

@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ git-annex (5.20140413) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium
     connections.
   * Improve handling of monthly/yearly scheduling.
   * Avoid depending on shakespeare except for when building the webapp.
+  * uninit: Avoid making unncessary copies of files.
 
  -- Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>  Fri, 11 Apr 2014 21:33:35 -0400
 

doc/git-annex.mdwn

@@ -845,10 +845,6 @@ subdirectories).
   repository, and remove all of git-annex's other data, leaving you with a
   git repository plus the previously annexed files.
 
-  Normally this does a slow copy of every file. In `--fast` mode, this copy
-  is avoided, but if two files in the repository have the same content,
-  they will end up hard linked together.
-
 # PLUMBING COMMANDS
 
 * `pre-commit [path ...]`