69 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
69 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
git-annex tries to ensure that the configured number of [[copies]] of your
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data always exist, and leaves it up to you to use commands like `git annex
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get` and `git annex drop` to move the content to the repositories you want
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to contain it. But often, it can be good to have more fine-grained
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control over which content is wanted by which repositories. Configuring
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this allows the git-annex assistant as well as
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`git annex get --auto`, `git annex drop --auto`, `git annex sync --content`,
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etc to do smarter things.
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Preferred content settings can be edited using `git
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annex vicfg`, or viewed and set at the command line with `git annex wanted`.
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Each repository can have its own settings, and other repositories will
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try to honor those settings when interacting with it.
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(So there's no local `.git/config` for preferred content settings.)
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The idea is that you write an expression that files are matched against.
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If a file matches, the repository wants to store its content.
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If it doesn't, the repository wants to drop its content
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(if there are enough copies elsewhere to allow removing it).
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## writing expressions
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[[!template id=note text="""
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### [[quickstart|standard_groups]]
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Rather than writing your own preferred content expression, you can use
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several standard ones included in git-annex that are tuned to cover different
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common use cases.
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You do this by putting a repository in a group,
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and simply setting its preferred content to "standard" to match whatever
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is standard for that group. See [[standard_groups]] for a list.
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"""]]
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See the man page [[git-annex-preferred-content]] for details on the syntax
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of preferred content expressions.
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An example:
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include=*.mp3 and (not largerthan=100mb) and exclude=old/*
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This makes all .mp3 files, and all other files that are less than 100 mb in
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size be preferred content. It excludes all files under the "old" directory.
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## upgrades
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It's important that all clones of a repository can understand one-another's
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preferred content expressions, especially when using the git-annex
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assistant. So using newly added keywords can cause a problem if
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an older version of git-annex is in use elsewhere.
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Before git-annex version 5.20140320, when git-annex saw a keyword it
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did not understand, it defaulted to assuming *all* files were
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preferred content. From version 5.20140320, git-annex has a nicer fallback
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behavior: When it is unable to parse a preferred content expression,
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it assumes all files that are currently present are preferred content.
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Here are recent changes to preferred content expressions, and the version
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they were added in.
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* "nothing" 6.201600202
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* "anything" 5.20150616
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* "standard" 5.20140314
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(only when used in a more complicated expression; "standard" by
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itself has been supported for a long time)
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* "groupwanted=" 5.20140314
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* "metadata=" 5.20140221
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* "lackingcopies=", "approxlackingcopies=", "unused=" 5.20140127
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* "inpreferreddir=" 4.20130501
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