This is handled differently for inotify, which can track modifications of
existing files, and kqueue, which cannot (TTBOMK). On the inotify side,
the TransferWatcher just waits for the file to be updated and reads the new
bytesComplete. On the kqueue side, the TransferPoller has to re-read the
file every update (currently 0.5 seconds, might need to increase that).
I did think about working around kqueue's limitations by somehow creating
a new file each time the size changed. But cleaning up all the files that
would result seemed difficult. And really, this is not a lot worse than
the TransferWatcher's behavior for downloads, which stats a file every 0.5
seconds. As long as the OS has decent file caching behavior..
git-annex allows managing files with git, without checking the file
contents into git. While that may seem paradoxical, it is useful when
dealing with files larger than git can currently easily handle, whether due
to limitations in memory, checksumming time, or disk space.
For documentation, see doc/ or <http://git-annex.branchable.com/>
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