$ cd ~/annex $ cp /tmp/big_file . $ cp /tmp/debian.iso . $ git annex add . add big_file (checksum...) ok add debian.iso (checksum...) ok $ git commit -a -m added When you add a file to the annex and commit it, only a symlink to the content is committed to git. The content itself is stored in git-annex's backend, `.git/annex/` (or in [[direct_mode]] the file is left as-is).