42 lines
2.1 KiB
Markdown
42 lines
2.1 KiB
Markdown
While dropbox allows modifying files in the folder, git-annex freezes
|
|
them upon creation, using symlinks.
|
|
|
|
This is a core design simplification of git-annex.
|
|
But it is problematic too:
|
|
|
|
* To allow directly editing files in its folder, something like [[todo/smudge]] is
|
|
needed, to get rid of the symlinks that stand in for the files.
|
|
* OSX seems to have a [[lot_of_problems|bugs/OSX_alias_permissions_and_versions_problem]]
|
|
with stupid programs that follow symlinks and present the git-annex
|
|
hash filename to the user.
|
|
* FAT sucks and doesn't support symlinks at all, so [[Android]] can't
|
|
have regular repos on it.
|
|
|
|
One approach for this would be to hide the git repo away somewhere,
|
|
and have the git-annex assistant watch a regular directory, with
|
|
regular files.
|
|
|
|
There would have to be a mapping from files to git-annex objects.
|
|
And some intelligent way to determine when a file has been changed
|
|
and no longer corresponds to its object. (Not expensive hashing every time,
|
|
plz.)
|
|
|
|
Since this leaves every file open to modification, any such repository
|
|
probably needs to be considered untrusted by git-annex. So it doesn't
|
|
leave its only copy of a file in such a repository, but instead
|
|
syncs it to a proper git-annex repository.
|
|
|
|
The assistant would make git commits still, of symlinks. It can already do
|
|
that with without actual symlinks existing on disk. More difficult is
|
|
handling merging; git merge wants a real repository with files it can
|
|
really operate on. The assistant would need to calculate merges on its own,
|
|
and update the regular directory to reflect changes made in the merge.
|
|
|
|
Another massive problem with this idea is that it doesn't allow for
|
|
[[partial_content]]. The symlinks that everyone loves to hate on are what
|
|
make it possible for the contents of some files to not be present on
|
|
disk, while the files are still in git and can be retreived as desired.
|
|
With real files, some other standin for a missing file would be needed.
|
|
Perhaps a 0 length, unreadable, unwritable file? On systems that
|
|
support symlinks it could be a broken symlink like is used now, that
|
|
is converted to a real file when it becomes present.
|