I just tried installing git-annex using Cabal today, but only got git-annex-4.20131002, even from source, which seems to predate your last comment, and no other branch seem to provide the yesod fix. Should I get the source from somewhere else than kitenet to try this out (if you think it is in shape to be tested)?
Strike that. It actually works. I could create the ~/annex store, and adding a remote also seems to work (I'm on a hotel Wi-Fi at the moment, so I fear the ssh connection will fail, but nothing to do with git-annex).
Since version 4.20130909, git-annex is supposed to have avoided this problem by forcing the push of the git-annex branch. If you run `git annex sync --debug`, you should see:
The \"+\" flag before the branch name forces git push to update the remote branch even if it's not a fast-forward.
You should be able to verify if git-annex is doing that, and run the same git push command manually to investigate why it might not be working. I have not seen this problem since putting in that fix, and I saw it before. Perhaps your server has an old or broken version of git that ignores this flag, or some git configuration setting I am not aware of that prevents it from working.
The command line you suggest is indeed tried, and rejected by the server.
The answer came from [here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/253055/how-do-i-push-amended-commit-to-the-remote-git-repo) where it says (speaking of a forced push)
> Even this may not work as git allows remote repositories to refuse non-fastforward pushes at the far end by using the config variable 'receive.denynonfastforwards'.
Indeed this is set in my annex repository. Note that this is a local setting, and that repository was created by the assistant.
I removed this setting, and I can now push. Could the setting of this bit be a bug in the assistant?
In any case, thanks a lot for indicating where to look at.
I contacted the maintainer of the uuid-package and he fixed the issue in the current release, so everythings fine now. and: everything compiled beautifully.
But to answer your question: I tend to rather compile things myself if I don't find them (or a current enough version) in the repos - but that's purely personal. ;)
Your screenshot shows git-annex is in the process of adding 6244 files. Depending on the size of those files, it could take some time to read their contents in order to calculate a checksum and add them to the repository. This would not normally take hours, unless your disk is very slow or the files are extremely big.
You might get some useful information if you enable debugging (Configuration -> Preferences -> Enable debug logging) and look at the log.
(This is not \"syncing\" btw. You have not set up any other repository for it to sync data with.)
I wanted to try out this probably great piece of software you wrote, alas I do not use a Debian distro with managed software menus (i.e. I use OpenBox), so I cannot simply open the assistant through my programs-menu. In fact, to do that I'd need the command to start the assistant so I can add it manually myself. Sadly, the man page did not gave me any advices... :(
Any chance to give me the terminal command to start the assistant?
***
edit: just to update the thread: everythings okay now. Thanks for this great program!
I installed the haskell DBus library, but it's still not picking it up. Is there some additional option to pass to cabal, or is it supposed to find it automatically?
Joey Hess