benchmarked numcopies .gitattributes in preferred content

Checking .gitattributes adds a full minute to a git annex find looking for
files that don't have enough copies. 2:25 increasts to 3:27. I feel this is
too much of a slowdown to justify making it the default. So, exposed two
versions of the preferred content expression, a slow one and a fast but
approximate one.

I'm using the approximate one in the default preferred content expressions
to avoid slowing down the assistant.

3 files changed, 13 insertions, 9 deletions

diff --git a/doc/git-annex.mdwn b/doc/git-annex.mdwn
index 6e7a6ed55..279fa24dd 100644
--- a/doc/git-annex.mdwn
+++ b/doc/git-annex.mdwn
@@ -1022,14 +1022,16 @@ file contents are present at either of two repositories.
   copies, on remotes in the specified group. For example,
   `--copies=archive:2`
 
-* `--numcopiesneeded=number`
+* `--lackingcopies=number`
 
   Matches only files that git-annex believes need the specified number or 
   more additional copies to be made in order to satisfy their numcopies
-  setting, as configured by the global numcopies setting of the repository.
+  settings.
 
-  Note that for various reasons, including speed, this does not look 
-  at the annex.numcopies .gitattributes settings of files.
+* `--approxlackingcopies=number`
+
+  Like lackingcopies, but does not look at .gitattributes annex.numcopies
+  settings. This makes it significantly faster.
 
 * `--inbackend=name`
 
diff --git a/doc/preferred_content.mdwn b/doc/preferred_content.mdwn
index b18f46c33..039df3878 100644
--- a/doc/preferred_content.mdwn
+++ b/doc/preferred_content.mdwn
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ any repository that can will back it up.)
 All content is preferred, unless it's for a file in a "archive" directory,
 which has reached an archive repository.
 
-`((exclude=*/archive/* and exclude=archive/*) or (not (copies=archive:1 or copies=smallarchive:1))) or numcopiesneeded=1`
+`((exclude=*/archive/* and exclude=archive/*) or (not (copies=archive:1 or copies=smallarchive:1))) or roughlylackingcopies=1`
 
 ### transfer
 
@@ -147,20 +147,20 @@ All content is preferred.
 Only prefers content that's not already backed up to another backup
 or incremental backup repository.
 
-`(include=* and (not copies=backup:1) and (not copies=incrementalbackup:1)) or numcopiesneeded=1`
+`(include=* and (not copies=backup:1) and (not copies=incrementalbackup:1)) or approxlackingcopies=1`
 
 ### small archive
 
 Only prefers content that's located in an "archive" directory, and
 only if it's not already been archived somewhere else.
 
-`((include=*/archive/* or include=archive/*) and not (copies=archive:1 or copies=smallarchive:1)) or numcopiesneeded=1`
+`((include=*/archive/* or include=archive/*) and not (copies=archive:1 or copies=smallarchive:1)) or approxlackingcopies=1`
 
 ### full archive
 
 All content is preferred, unless it's already been archived somewhere else.
 
-`(not (copies=archive:1 or copies=smallarchive:1)) or numcopiesneeded=1`
+`(not (copies=archive:1 or copies=smallarchive:1)) or approxlackingcopies=1`
 
 Note that if you want to archive multiple copies (not a bad idea!),
 you should instead configure all your archive repositories with a
diff --git a/doc/todo/preferred_content_numcopies_check.mdwn b/doc/todo/preferred_content_numcopies_check.mdwn
index 8aa736a04..2e007460f 100644
--- a/doc/todo/preferred_content_numcopies_check.mdwn
+++ b/doc/todo/preferred_content_numcopies_check.mdwn
@@ -59,7 +59,9 @@ Conclusion:
   to instead end with "or numcopiesneeded=1" **done**
 * See if "numcopiesneeded=N" can check .gitattributes without getting
   a lot slower. If now, perhaps add a "numcopiesneededaccurate=N" that
-  checks it.
+  checks it. **done**
+
+[[done]] 
 
 ## Stability analysis