From cbc88a878f6e337c1bff5471ae58a29ba5f1ae21 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Spencer Date: Tue, 8 Oct 2024 03:58:55 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] --- doc/tips/cloning_a_repository_privately.mdwn | 10 ++++++++-- 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/doc/tips/cloning_a_repository_privately.mdwn b/doc/tips/cloning_a_repository_privately.mdwn index d88e984e6a..844528779d 100644 --- a/doc/tips/cloning_a_repository_privately.mdwn +++ b/doc/tips/cloning_a_repository_privately.mdwn @@ -48,8 +48,14 @@ recover any files stored in it. When the git config "remote.name.private" is set, git-annex will avoid recording anything in the git-annex branch about the remote. This is set by `git-annex initremote --private`, and could also be set for -git remotes. This could be useful, perhaps. Update this tip if you have a -good way to use it. +git remotes. This may be useful if, for example, you are trying to deduplicate content, +bifurcate repositories, or reinject it using a temporary annex as a staging area. +Git annex is excellent for these tasks because it naturally hashes all file content, +therefore if a 'copy' appears in one repo that should belong in another, you can drop +its content or move it to deduplicate. However, in this case, git-annex logging a relationship +between the two repos is undesirable. Especially if the repos are otherwise unrelated or +one of them is temporary (to be deleted once emptied), `remote.private` is preferrable to declaring +the repo dead and doing a `forget --drop-dead --force` operation. ## where the data is actually stored