# NAME

git-annex mincopies - configure minimum number of copies

# SYNOPSIS

git annex mincopies `N`

# DESCRIPTION

Tells git-annex how many copies it is required to preserve of files, over all
repositories. The default is 1.

Run without a number to get the current value.

This configuration is stored in the git-annex branch, so it will be seen
by all clones of the repository. It can be overridden on a per-file basis
by the annex.mincopies setting in .gitattributes files, or can be
overridden temporarily with the --mincopies option.

This supplements the [[git-annex-numcopies]](1) setting. 
In unusual situations, involving special remotes that do not support
locking, and concurrent drops of the same content from multiple
repositories, git-annex may violate the numcopies setting.
In these unusual situations, git-annex ensures that the number of copies
never goes below mincopies.

It is a good idea to not only rely on only setting mincopies. Set
numcopies as well, to a larger number, and keep mincopies at the
bare minimum you're comfortable with. Setting mincopies to a large
number, rather than setting numcopies will in some cases prevent
droping content in entirely safe situations.

# OPTIONS

* The [[git-annex-common-options]](1) can be used.

# SEE ALSO

[[git-annex]](1)
[[git-annex-numcopies]](1)

# AUTHOR

Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name>

Warning: Automatically converted into a man page by mdwn2man. Edit with care.