preparing to merge git-remote-annex

Update its todo with remaining items.

Add changelog entry.

Simplified internals document to no longer be notes to myself, but
target users who want to understand how the data is stored
and might want to extract these repos manually.

Sponsored-by: Kevin Mueller on Patreon
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Joey Hess 2024-05-10 14:41:18 -04:00
parent 4d0543932e
commit dfb09ad1ad
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git-annex (10.20240431) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium
* git-remote-annex: New program which allows pushing a git repo to a
git-annex special remote, and cloning from a special remote.
(Based on Michael Hanke's git-remote-datalad-annex.)
* Typo fixes.
Thanks, Yaroslav Halchenko

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@ -49,5 +49,5 @@ problem:
[[fairly simple shell script using standard tools|tips/Decrypting_files_in_special_remotes_without_git-annex]]
(gpg and openssl) can decrypt files stored on such
a remote, as long as you have access to the encryption keys (which
are stored in the git-annex branch of the repository, sometimes
encrypted with your gpg key).
for some types of encryption are stored in the git-annex branch of
the repository, sometimes encrypted with your gpg key).

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@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ In the world of git, we're not scared about internal implementation
details, and sometimes we like to dive in and tweak things by hand. Here's
some documentation to that end.
[[!toc ]]
## The .git/ directory
### `.git/annex/objects/aa/bb/*/*`
@ -364,3 +366,8 @@ of actual annexed files.
These trees are recorded in history of the git-annex branch, but the
head of the git-annex branch will never contain them.
## Other internals documentation
* [[git-remote-annex]] documents how git repositories are stored
on special remotes when using git with "annex::" urls.

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The [[git-remote-annex|/git-remote-annex]] command allows pushing a git
repository to a special remote, and later cloning from it.
This adds two new key types to git-annex, GITMANIFEST and a GITBUNDLE.
GITMANIFEST--$UUID is the manifest for a git repository stored in the
@ -11,44 +14,26 @@ An ordered list of bundle keys, one per line.
(Lines end with unix `"\n"`, not `"\r\n"`.)
# fetching
1. download GITMANIFEST for the uuid of the special remote
2. download each listed GITBUNDLE key that we don't have
3. `git fetch` from each new bundle in order
(note that later bundles can update refs from the versions in previous
bundles)
# pushing (incrementally)
This is how pushes are usually done.
1. create git bundle of all refs that are being pushed and have changed,
and objects since the previously pushed refs
2. hash to calculate GITBUNDLE key
3. upload GITBUNDLE key
4. download current manifest
5. append GITBUNDLE key to manifest
# pushing (full)
Note that this can be used to replace incrementals with a single bundle for
performance. It is also the only way to handle a push that deletes a
previously pushed ref.
1. create git bundle containing all refs stored in the repository, and all
objects
2. hash to calculate GITBUNDLE key name
3. upload GITBUNDLE key
4. download old manifest
4. upload new manifest listing only the single new GITBUNDLE
5. delete all other GITBUNDLEs that were listed in the old manifest
# multiple GITMANIFEST files
Usually there will only be one per special remote, but it's possible for
multiple special remotes to point to the same object storage, and if so
multiple GITMANIFEST objects can be stored.
It follows that the UUID of the special remote has to be included in the
annex:// uri, to know which GITMANIFEST to use when cloning from it.
This is why the UUID of the special remote is included in the GITMANIFEST
key, and in the annex:: uri.
# manually cloning from these files
If you are unable to use git-annex and need to clone a git repository
stored in such a special remote, this procedure will work:
* Find and download the GITMANIFEST
* Download each listed GITBUNDLE
* `git fetch` from each new bundle in order.
(Note that later bundles can update refs from the versions in previous
bundles.)
When the special remote is encryptee, the GITMANIFEST and GITBUNDLE will
also be encrypted. To decrypt those manually, see this
[[fairly simple shell script using standard tools|tips/Decrypting_files_in_special_remotes_without_git-annex]].

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@ -4,21 +4,88 @@ repository to any git-annex special remote.
This is a redesign and reimplementation of git-remote-datalad-annex.
It will be a safer implementation, will support incremental pushes, and
will be available to users who don't use datalad.
Work is in the `git-remote-annex` branch, currently we have a design for
the core data files and operations.
<http://source.git-annex.branchable.com/?p=source.git;a=blob;f=doc/internals/git-remote-annex.mdwn;hb=git-remote-annex>
Also, that branch has a proof of concept implementation in a shell script.
Though it doesn't yet use special remotes at all, it is able to do
incremental pushes to git bundles with a manifest.
I still need to do some design work around using the git-annex branch to
detect concurrent push situations where changes to the manifest get lost,
and re-add those changes to it later.
Also, it's not clear what will happen when two people make conflicting pushes
to a ref, the goal would be to replicate git push to a regular git remote,
but that may not be entirely possible. This will need to be investigated
further.
--[[Joey]]
---
This is implememented and working. Remaining todo list for it:
* Need to test all types of pushes, barely tested at all.
* Support exporttree=yes remotes.
* Support max-bundles config
* Need to mention git-remote-annex in special remotes page, and perhaps
write a tip for it. Also link to it from git-annex man page.
* initremote could optionally configure the url to a special remote
to an annex:: url. This would make it easier to use git-remote-annex,
since the user would not need to set up the url themselves.
(Also it would then avoid setting `skipFetchAll = true`)
* Prevent using with remotes that are encrypted using a cipher
stored in the repo. Chicken and egg problem cloning from
such a remote. Maybe allow advanced users to force it?
* When the remote has no manifest, a pull from it should fail,
while a push should succeed. Otherwise, it can be confusing
to clone from a wrong url, since it fails to download
a manifest and so appears as if the remote is empty.
* See XXX in uploadManifest about recovering from a situation
where the remote is left with a deleted manifest when a push
is interrupted part way through. This should be recoverable
by caching the manifest locally and re-uploading it when
the remote has no manifest.
* datalad-annex supports cloning from the web special remote,
using an url that contains the result of pushing to eg, a directory
special remote.
`datalad-annex::https://example.com?type=web&url={noquery}`
Supporting something like this would be good.
* It would be nice if git-annex could generate an annex:: url
for a special remote and show it to the user, eg when
they have set the shorthand "annex::" url, so they know the full url.
`git-annex info $remote` could also display it.
Currently, the user has to remember how the special remote was
configured and replicate it all in the url.
There are some difficulties to doing this, including that
RemoteConfig can have hidden fields that should be omitted,
and that some, like type=directory, remove some configs
(eg directory=) in their setup action.
* Improve behavior in push races. A race can overwrite a change
to the MANIFEST and lose work that was pushed from the other repo.
From the user's perspective, that situation is the same as if one repo
pushed new work, then the other repo did a git push --force, overwriting
the first repo's push. In the first repo, another push will then fail as
a non fast-forward, and the user can recover as usual. This is probably
okish.
But.. a MANIFEST overwrite will leave bundle files in the remote that
are not listed in the MANIFEST. It seems likely that git-annex could
detect that after the fact and clean it up. Eg, if it caches
the last MANIFEST it uploaded, next time it downloads the MANIFEST
it can check if there are bundle files in the old one that are not
in the new one. If so, it can drop those bundle files from the remote.
* A push race can also appear to the user as if they pushed a ref, but then
it got deleted from the remote. This happens when two pushes are
pushing different ref names. This might be harder for the user to
notice; git fetch does not indicate that a remote ref got deleted.
They would have to use git fetch --prune to notice the deletion.
Once the user does notice, they can re-push their ref to recover.
Can this be improved?
* The race condition described in
[[!commit 797f27ab0517e0021363791ff269300f2ba095a5]]
where before git-annex init is run in a repo,
using git-remote-annex and at the same time git-annex init can lose
changes that the latter command (and ones after it) write to the
git-annex branch.
This should be fixable by making git-remote-annex not write to the
git-annex branch, but to eg, a temporary journal directory.