418 lines
13 KiB
Markdown
418 lines
13 KiB
Markdown
# NAME
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git-annex - manage files with git, without checking their contents in
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# SYNOPSIS
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git annex command [params ...]
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# DESCRIPTION
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git-annex allows managing files with git, without checking the file
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contents into git. While that may seem paradoxical, it is useful when
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dealing with files larger than git can currently easily handle, whether due
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to limitations in memory, checksumming time, or disk space.
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Even without file content tracking, being able to manage files with git,
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move files around and delete files with versioned directory trees, and use
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branches and distributed clones, are all very handy reasons to use git. And
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annexed files can co-exist in the same git repository with regularly
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versioned files, which is convenient for maintaining documents, Makefiles,
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etc that are associated with annexed files but that benefit from full
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revision control.
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When a file is annexed, its content is moved into a key-value store, and
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a symlink is made that points to the content. These symlinks are checked into
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git and versioned like regular files. You can move them around, delete
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them, and so on. Pushing to another git repository will make git-annex
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there aware of the annexed file, and it can be used to retrieve its
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content from the key-value store.
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# EXAMPLES
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# git annex get video/hackity_hack_and_kaxxt.mov
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get video/_why_hackity_hack_and_kaxxt.mov (not available)
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I was unable to access these remotes: server
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Try making some of these repositories available:
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5863d8c0-d9a9-11df-adb2-af51e6559a49 -- my home file server
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58d84e8a-d9ae-11df-a1aa-ab9aa8c00826 -- portable USB drive
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ca20064c-dbb5-11df-b2fe-002170d25c55 -- backup SATA drive
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failed
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# sudo mount /media/usb
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# git remote add usbdrive /media/usb
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# git annex get video/hackity_hack_and_kaxxt.mov
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get video/hackity_hack_and_kaxxt.mov (copying from usbdrive...) ok
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# git commit -a -m "got a video I want to rewatch on the plane"
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# git annex add iso
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add iso/Debian_5.0.iso ok
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# git commit -a -m "saving Debian CD for later"
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# git annex drop iso/Debian_4.0.iso
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drop iso/Debian_4.0.iso ok
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# git commit -a -m "freed up space"
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# git annex move iso --to=usbdrive
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move iso/Debian_5.0.iso (moving to usbdrive...) ok
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# COMMANDS
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Like many git commands, git-annex can be passed a path that
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is either a file or a directory. In the latter case it acts on all relevant
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files in the directory. If no path is specified, most git-annex commands
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default to acting on all relevant files in the current directory (and
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subdirectories).
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Many git-annex commands will stage changes for later `git commit` by you.
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* add [path ...]
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Adds files in the path to the annex. Files that are already checked into
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git, or that git has been configured to ignore will be silently skipped.
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* get [path ...]
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Makes the content of annexed files available in this repository. Depending
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on the backend used, this will involve copying them from another repository,
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or downloading them, or transferring them from some kind of key-value store.
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* drop [path ...]
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Drops the content of annexed files from this repository.
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git-annex may refuse to drop content if the backend does not think
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it is safe to do so, typically because of the setting of annex.numcopies.
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* move [path ...]
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When used with the --to option, moves the content of annexed files from
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the current repository to the specified one.
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When used with the --from option, moves the content of annexed files
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from the specified repository to the current one.
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* copy [path ...]
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When used with the --to option, copies the content of annexed files from
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the current repository to the specified one.
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When used with the --from option, copies the content of annexed files
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from the specified repository to the current one.
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* unlock [path ...]
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Normally, the content of annexed files is protected from being changed.
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Unlocking a annexed file allows it to be modified. This replaces the
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symlink for each specified file with a copy of the file's content.
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You can then modify it and `git annex add` (or `git commit`) to inject
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it back into the annex.
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* edit [path ...]
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This is an alias for the unlock command. May be easier to remember,
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if you think of this as allowing you to edit an annexed file.
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* lock [path ...]
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Use this to undo an unlock command if you don't want to modify
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the files, or have made modifications you want to discard.
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* init description
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Initializes git-annex with a description of the git repository,
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and sets up `.gitattributes` and the pre-commit hook.
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* describe repository description
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Changes the description of a git repository.
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The repository to describe can be specified by git remote name or
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by uuid. To change the description of the current repository, use
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"."
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* fsck [path ...]
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With no parameters, this command checks the whole annex for consistency,
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and warns about any problems found.
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With parameters, only the specified files are checked.
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* unused
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Checks the annex for data that is not used by any files currently
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in the annex, and prints a numbered list of the data.
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* dropunused [number ...]
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Drops the data corresponding to the numbers, as listed by the last
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`git annex unused`
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* find [path ...]
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Outputs a list of annexed files whose content is currently present.
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With no parameters, defaults to finding all files in the current directory
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and its subdirectories.
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* whereis [path ...]
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Displays a list of repositories known to contain the content of the
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specified file or files.
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* migrate [path ...]
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Changes the specified annexed files to store their content in the
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default backend (or the one specified with --backend).
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Note that the content is not removed from the backend it was previously in.
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Use `git annex unused` to find and remove such content.
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* map
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Helps you keep track of your repositories, and the connections between them,
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by going out and looking at all the ones it can get to, and generating a
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Graphviz file displaying it all. If the `dot` command is available, it is
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used to display the file to your screen (using x11 backend).
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Note that this only connects to hosts that the host it's run on can
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directly connect to. It does not try to tunnel through intermediate hosts.
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So it might not show all connections between the repositories in the network.
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Also, if connecting to a host requires a password, you might have to enter
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it several times as the map is being built.
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Note that this subcommand can be used to graph any git repository; it
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is not limited to git-annex repositories.
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* unannex [path ...]
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Use this to undo an accidental `git annex add` command. You can use
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`git annex unannex` to move content out of the annex at any point,
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even if you've already committed it.
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This is not the command you should use if you intentionally annexed a
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file and don't want its contents any more. In that case you should use
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`git annex drop` instead, and you can also `git rm` the file.
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* uninit
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Use this to stop using git annex. It will unannex every file in the
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repository, and remove all of git-annex's other data, leaving you with a
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git repository plus the previously annexed files.
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* fix [path ...]
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Fixes up symlinks that have become broken to again point to annexed content.
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This is useful to run if you have been moving the symlinks around.
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* pre-commit [path ...]
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Fixes up symlinks that are staged as part of a commit, to ensure they
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point to annexed content. Also handles injecting changes to unlocked
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files into the annex.
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This is meant to be called from git's pre-commit hook. `git annex init`
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automatically creates a pre-commit hook using this.
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* trust [repository ...]
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Records that a repository is [[trusted|trust]] to not unexpectedly lose
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content. Use with care.
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To trust the current repository, use "."
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* untrust [repository ...]
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Records that a repository is [[not trusted|trust]] and could lose content
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at any time.
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* semitrust [repository ...]
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Returns a repository to the default [[semi trusted|trust]] state.
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* fromkey file
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This can be used to manually set up a file to link to a specified key
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in the key-value backend. How you determine an existing key in the backend
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varies. For the URL backend, the key is based on an URL to the content.
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Example:
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git annex fromkey --key=URL--http://www.archive.org/somefile somefile
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* dropkey [key ...]
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This plumbing-level command drops the annexed data for the specified
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keys from this repository.
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This can be used to drop content for arbitrary keys, which do not need
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to have a file in the git repository pointing at them.
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Example:
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git annex dropkey SHA1-s10-7da006579dd64330eb2456001fd01948430572f2
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* setkey file
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This plumbing-level command sets the annexed data for a key to the content of
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the specified file, and then removes the file.
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Example:
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git annex setkey --key=WORM-s3-m1287765018--file /tmp/file
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# OPTIONS
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* --force
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Force unsafe actions, such as dropping a file's content when no other
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source of it can be verified to still exist. Use with care.
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* --quiet
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Avoid the default verbose logging of what is done; only show errors
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and progress displays.
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* --verbose
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Enable verbose logging.
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* --from=repository
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Specifies a repository that content will be retrieved from.
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It should be specified using the name of a configured git remote.
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* --to=repository
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Specifies a git repository that content will be sent to.
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It should be specified using the name of a configured git remote.
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* --exclude=glob
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Skips files matching the glob pattern. The glob is matched relative to
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the current directory.
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This option can be specified multiple times.
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* --backend=name
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Specifies which key-value backend to use. This can be used when
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adding a file to the annex, or migrating a file. Once files
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are in the annex, their backend is known and this option is not
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necessary.
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* --key=name
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Specifies a key to operate on.
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# CONFIGURATION
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Like other git commands, git-annex is configured via `.git/config`.
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Here are all the supported configuration settings.
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* `annex.uuid`
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A unique UUID for this repository (automatically set).
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* `annex.numcopies`
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Number of copies of files to keep across all repositories. (default: 1)
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* `annex.backends`
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Space-separated list of names of the key-value backends to use.
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The first listed is used to store new files by default.
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(default: "WORM SHA1 URL")
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* `remote.<name>.annex-cost`
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When determining which repository to
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transfer annexed files from or to, ones with lower costs are preferred.
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The default cost is 100 for local repositories, and 200 for remote
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repositories.
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* `remote.<name>.annex-ignore`
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If set to `true`, prevents git-annex
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from using this remote by default. (You can still request it be used
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by the --from and --to options.)
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This is, for example, useful if the remote is located somewhere
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without [[git-annex-shell]]. (For example, if it's on GitHub).
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Or, it could be used if the network connection between two
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repositories is too slow to be used normally.
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* `remote.<name>.annex-uuid`
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git-annex caches UUIDs of repositories here.
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* `remote.<name>.annex-ssh-options`
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Options to use when using ssh to talk to this repository.
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* `remote.<name>.annex-rsync-options`
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Options to use when using rsync
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to or from this repository. For example, to force ipv6, and limit
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the bandwidth to 100Kbyte/s, set it to "-6 --bwlimit 100"
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* `annex.ssh-options`, `annex.rsync-options`
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Default ssh and rsync options to use if a remote does not have
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specific options.
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* `annex.version`
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Automatically maintained, and used to automate upgrades between versions.
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# CONFIGURATION VIA .gitattributes
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The backend used when adding a new file to the annex can be configured
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on a per-file-type basis via `.gitattributes` files. In the file,
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the `annex.backend` attribute can be set to the name of the backend to
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use. For example, this here's how to use the WORM backend by default,
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but the SHA1 backend for ogg files:
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* annex.backend=WORM
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*.ogg annex.backend=SHA1
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The numcopies setting can also be configured on a per-file-type basis via
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the `annex.numcopies` attribute in `.gitattributes` files.
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For example, this makes two copies be needed for wav files:
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*.wav annex.numcopies=2
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# FILES
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These files are used by git-annex, in your git repository:
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`.git/annex/objects/` contains the annexed file contents that are currently
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available. Annexed files in your git repository symlink to that content.
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`.git-annex/uuid.log` is used to map between repository UUID and
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descriptions.
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`.git-annex/trust.log` is used to indicate which repositories are trusted
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and untrusted.
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`.git-annex/*.log` is where git-annex records its content tracking
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information. These files should be committed to git.
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`.gitattributes` is configured to use git's union merge driver
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to avoid conflicts when merging files in the `.git-annex` directory.
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# SEE ALSO
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Most of git-annex's documentation is available on its web site,
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<http://git-annex.branchable.com/>
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If git-annex is installed from a package, a copy of its documentation
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should be included, in, for example, `/usr/share/doc/git-annex/`
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# AUTHOR
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Joey Hess <joey@kitenet.net>
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<http://git-annex.branchable.com/>
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Warning: this page is automatically made into a man page via [mdwn2man](http://git.ikiwiki.info/?p=ikiwiki;a=blob;f=mdwn2man;hb=HEAD). Edit with care
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