59c2001d2f
git-lfs's smudge filter downloads contents of files from the server when not available locally. So, checking out a branch will always populate all files.
70 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
70 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
[[!meta title="what git-annex is not"]]
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* git-annex is not a backup system. It may be a useful component of an
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[[archival|use_case/bob]] system, or a way to deliver files to a backup
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system. For a backup system that uses git and that git-annex supports
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storing data in, see [[special_remotes/bup]].
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* git-annex is not a filesystem or Dropbox clone. However, the git-annex
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[[assistant]] is addressing some of the same needs in its own unique ways.
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(There is also a FUSE filesystem built on top of git-annex, called
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[ShareBox](https://github.com/chmduquesne/sharebox-fs).)
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* git-annex is not unison, but if you're finding unison's checksumming
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too slow, or its strict mirroring of everything to both places too
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limiting, then git-annex could be a useful alternative.
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* git-annex is also not a folder mirroring system like [syncthing](https://syncthing.net/)
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(although [syncthing could be supported as a special remote](todo/syncthing_special_remote/))
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or [gut](https://github.com/tillberg/gut), but it can be used to sync
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files such a way, with certain limitations (for example, it doesn't
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like syncing `.git` directories so much).
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* git-annex is also not a distributed file system like Bittorrent or [ipfs](http://ipfs.io)
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but both are supported as special remotes with more work in making
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[[git-annex more distributed underway|todo/Bittorrent-like_features/]].
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* git-annex is more than just a workaround for git scalability
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limitations that might eventually be fixed by efforts like
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[git-bigfiles](http://caca.zoy.org/wiki/git-bigfiles). In particular,
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git-annex's [[location_tracking]] allows having many repositories
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with a partial set of files, that are copied around as desired.
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* git-annex is not some flaky script that was quickly thrown together.
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I wrote it in Haskell because I wanted it to be solid and to compile
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down to a binary. And it has a fairly extensive test suite. (Don't be
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fooled by "make test" only showing a few dozen test cases; each test
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involves checking dozens to hundreds of assertions.)
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* git-annex is not [git-media](https://github.com/schacon/git-media),
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although they both approach the same problem from a similar direction.
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I only learned of git-media after writing git-annex, but I probably
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would have still written git-annex instead of using it. Currently,
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git-media has the advantage of using git smudge filters rather than
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git-annex's pile of symlinks, and it may be a tighter fit for certain
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situations. It lacks git-annex's support for widely distributed storage,
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using only a single backend data store. It also does not support
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partial checkouts of file contents, like git-annex does.
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* git-annex is similarly not [git-fat](https://github.com/jedbrown/git-fat),
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which also uses git smudge filters, and also lacks git-annex's widely
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distributed storage and partial checkouts.
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* Similarly, git-annex is not [git-lfs](https://github.com/github/git-lfs),
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which also uses git smudge filters, and appears to lack git-annex's
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widely distributed storage and partial checkouts.
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* git-annex is also not [boar](http://code.google.com/p/boar/),
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although it shares many of its goals and characteristics. Boar implements
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its own version control system, rather than simply embracing and
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extending git. And while boar supports distributed clones of a repository,
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it does not support keeping different files in different clones of the
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same repository, which git-annex does, and is an important feature for
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large-scale archiving.
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* git-annex is not the [Mercurial largefiles extension](http://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/LargefilesExtension).
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Although mercurial and git have some of the same problems around large
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files, and both try to solve them in similar ways (standin files using
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mostly hashes of the real content).
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See also the [[related_software]] page for software that git-annex *is* similar to.
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