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authorGravatar Joey Hess <joey@kitenet.net>2011-01-26 14:09:06 -0400
committerGravatar Joey Hess <joey@kitenet.net>2011-01-26 14:09:06 -0400
commitf7e3d6eea2f71efe14c3ccb29ef4e88840384d02 (patch)
tree29dfcc1d3b40c79a9d9635454971a6f64a5021f7 /doc/trust.mdwn
parent07769fc94968ab65a828c0c001c2fa443a328d99 (diff)
document 3-level trust
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+Git-annex supports three levels of trust of a repository:
+
+* semitrusted (default)
+* untrusted
+* trusted
+
+## semi-trusted
+
Normally, git-annex does not fully trust its stored [[location_tracking]]
information. When removing content, it will directly check
that other repositories have enough [[copies]].
@@ -7,14 +15,35 @@ Generally that explicit checking is a good idea. Consider that the current
out. Or, a remote may have suffered a catastrophic loss of data, or itself
been lost.
-Sometimes though, you may have reasons to trust the location tracking
-information for a remote repository. For example, it may be an offline
+There is still some trust involved here. A semi-trusted repository is
+dependended on to retain a copy of the file content; possibly the only
+[[copy|copies]].
+
+(Being semitrusted is the default. The `git annex semitrust` command
+restores a repository to this default, when it has been overridden.)
+
+## untrusted
+
+An untrusted repository is not trusted to retain data at all. Git-annex
+will not count data in such a repository as a of the data, and will
+retain sufficient [[copies]] elsewhere.
+
+This is a good choice for eg, portable drives that could get lost. Or,
+if a disk is known to be dying, you can set it to untrusted and let
+`git annex fsck` warn about data that needs to be copied off it.
+
+To configure a repository as untrusted, use the `git annex untrust`
+command.
+
+## trusted
+
+Sometimes, you may have reasons to fully trust the location tracking
+information for a repository. For example, it may be an offline
archival drive, from which you rarely or never remove content. Deciding
when it makes sense to trust the tracking info is up to you.
One way to handle this is just to use `--force` when a command cannot
access a remote you trust.
-Another option is to configure which remotes you trust with the
-`git annex trust` command, or by manually adding the UUIDs of trusted remotes
-to `.git-annex/trust.log`.
+To configure a repository as fully trusted, use the `git annex trust`
+command.