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+[[!comment format=mdwn
+ username="yarikoptic"
+ avatar="http://cdn.libravatar.org/avatar/f11e9c84cb18d26a1748c33b48c924b4"
+ subject="question about backend"
+ date="2022-02-28T22:42:33Z"
+ content="""
+ATM we rely on .gitattributes to set default (to DataLad datasets) backend to be MD5E, so every dataset then is guaranteed to have `.gitattributes`. We also rely in many configurations on setting `largefiles` for different extensions within `.gitattributes`.  I think this is two primary target use cases.  You say that having `.gitattributes` slows down `git` (and `git-annex`) operations -- so would you recommend to switch to specifying those (backend, largefiles) via `git annex config` instead?  
+
+In [datalad/issues/5383 (Stop using .gitattributes for annex.largefiles config )](https://github.com/datalad/datalad/issues/5383)  note was that default backend cannot be specified via `git-annex config` -- is that still the case?
+"""]]