<RichiH> i richih@eudyptes (git)-[master] ~git/debconf-share/debconf13/photos/chrysn % rm /home/richih/work/git/debconf-share/.git/annex/tmp/SHA256E-s3044235--693b74fcb12db06b5e79a8b99d03e2418923866506ee62d24a4e9ae8c5236758.JPG
<RichiH> richih@eudyptes (git)-[master] ~git/debconf-share/debconf13/photos/chrysn % git annex get P8060008.JPG
<RichiH> get P8060008.JPG (from website...) --2013-08-21 21:42:45-- http://annex.debconf.org/debconf-share/.git//annex/objects/1a4/67d/SHA256E-s3044235--693b74fcb12db06b5e79a8b99d03e2418923866506ee62d24a4e9ae8c5236758.JPG/SHA256E-s3044235--693b74fcb12db06b5e79a8b99d03e2418923866506ee62d24a4e9ae8c5236758.JPG
<RichiH> Resolving annex.debconf.org (annex.debconf.org)... 5.153.231.227, 2001:41c8:1000:19::227:2
<RichiH> Connecting to annex.debconf.org (annex.debconf.org)|5.153.231.227|:80... connected.
<RichiH> HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 404 Not Found
<RichiH> 2013-08-21 21:42:45 ERROR 404: Not Found.
<RichiH> File `/home/richih/work/git/debconf-share/.git/annex/tmp/SHA256E-s3044235--693b74fcb12db06b5e79a8b99d03e2418923866506ee62d24a4e9ae8c5236758.JPG' already there; not retrieving.
<RichiH> Unable to access these remotes: website
<RichiH> Try making some of these repositories available:
<RichiH> 3e0356ac-0743-11e3-83a5-1be63124a102 -- website (annex.debconf.org)
<RichiH> a7495021-9f2d-474e-80c7-34d29d09fec6 -- chrysn@hephaistos:~/data/projects/debconf13/debconf-share
<RichiH> eb8990f7-84cd-4e6b-b486-a5e71efbd073 -- joeyh passport usb drive
<RichiH> f415f118-f428-4c68-be66-c91501da3a93 -- joeyh laptop
<RichiH> failed
<RichiH> git-annex: get: 1 failed
<RichiH> richih@eudyptes (git)-[master] ~git/debconf-share/debconf13/photos/chrysn %
I was not able to reproduce the failure, but I did reproduce that
wget -O http://404/ results in an empty file being written.
This is a simple approach for setting up a mirroring repository.
It will work with any type of remotes.
Mirror --from is more expensive than mirror --to in general.
OTOH, mirror --from will get the file from any remote that has it, not only
the named mirror remote. And if the named mirror remote is not the fastest
available remote with a file, that can speed things up.
It would be possible to make the assistant or watch command do a more
dynamic mirroring, that didn't need to scan every time.
Note that --deduplicate currently checksums each file twice,
once to see if it's a known key, and once when importing it.
Perhaps this could be revisited and the extra checksum gotten rid of,
at the cost of not locking down the file when adding it.