# NAME git-annex - manage files with git, without checking their contents in # SYNOPSIS git annex command [params ...] # DESCRIPTION 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. Even without file content tracking, being able to manage files with git, move files around and delete files with versioned directory trees, and use branches and distributed clones, are all very handy reasons to use git. And annexed files can co-exist in the same git repository with regularly versioned files, which is convenient for maintaining documents, Makefiles, etc that are associated with annexed files but that benefit from full revision control. When a file is annexed, its content is moved into a key-value store, and a symlink is made that points to the content. These symlinks are checked into git and versioned like regular files. You can move them around, delete them, and so on. Pushing to another git repository will make git-annex there aware of the annexed file, and it can be used to retrieve its content from the key-value store. # EXAMPLES # git annex get video/hackity_hack_and_kaxxt.mov get video/hackity_hack_and_kaxxt.mov (not available) I was unable to access these remotes: server Try making some of these repositories available: 5863d8c0-d9a9-11df-adb2-af51e6559a49 -- my home file server 58d84e8a-d9ae-11df-a1aa-ab9aa8c00826 -- portable USB drive ca20064c-dbb5-11df-b2fe-002170d25c55 -- backup SATA drive failed # sudo mount /media/usb # git remote add usbdrive /media/usb # git annex get video/hackity_hack_and_kaxxt.mov get video/hackity_hack_and_kaxxt.mov (from usbdrive...) ok # git annex add iso add iso/Debian_5.0.iso ok # git annex drop iso/Debian_4.0.iso drop iso/Debian_4.0.iso ok # git annex move iso --to=usbdrive move iso/Debian_5.0.iso (moving to usbdrive...) ok # COMMONLY USED COMMANDS Like many git commands, git-annex can be passed a path that is either a file or a directory. In the latter case it acts on all relevant files in the directory. When no path is specified, most git-annex commands default to acting on all relevant files in the current directory (and subdirectories). * `help` Display built-in help. For help on a specific command, use `git annex help command` * `add [path ...]` Adds files in the path to the annex. If no path is specified, adds files from the current directory and below. See [[git-annex-add]](1) for details. * `get [path ...]` Makes the content of annexed files available in this repository. See [[git-annex-get]](1) for details. * `drop [path ...]` Drops the content of annexed files from this repository. See [[git-annex-drop]](1) for details. * `move [path ...] [--from=remote|--to=remote]` Moves the content of files from or to another remote. See [[git-annex-move]](1) for details. * `copy [path ...] [--from=remote|--to=remote]` Copies the content of files from or to another remote. See [[git-annex-copy]](1) for details. * `status [path ...]` Similar to `git status --short`, displays the status of the files in the working tree. Particularly useful in direct mode. See [[git-annex-status]](1) for details. * `unlock [path ...]` Unlock annexed files for modification. See [[git-annex-unlock]](1) for details. * `edit [path ...]` This is an alias for the unlock command. May be easier to remember, if you think of this as allowing you to edit an annexed file. * `lock [path ...]` Use this to undo an unlock command if you don't want to modify the files, or have made modifications you want to discard. See [[git-annex-lock]](1) for details. * `sync [remote ...]` Synchronize local repository with remotes. See [[git-annex-sync]](1) for details. * `mirror [path ...] [--to=remote|--from=remote]` Mirror content of files to/from another repository. See [[git-annex-mirror]](1) for details. * `addurl [url ...]` Downloads each url to its own file, which is added to the annex. See [[git-annex-addurl]](1) for details. * `rmurl file url` Record that the file is no longer available at the url. See [[git-annex-rmurl]](1) for details. * `import [path ...]` Move and add files from outside git working copy into the annex. See [[git-annex-import]](1) for details. * `importfeed [url ...]` Imports the contents of podcast feeds into the annex. See [[git-annex-importfeed]](1) for details. * `undo [filename|directory] ...` Undo last change to a file or directory. See [[git-annex-undo]](1) for details. * `watch` Watch for changes and autocommit. See [[git-annex-watch]](1) for details. * `assistant` Automatically sync folders between devices. See [[git-annex-assistant]](1) for details. * `webapp` Opens a web app, that allows easy setup of a git-annex repository, and control of the git-annex assistant. If the assistant is not already running, it will be started. See [[git-annex-webapp]](1) for details. # REPOSITORY SETUP COMMANDS * `init [description]` Until a repository (or one of its remotes) has been initialized, git-annex will refuse to operate on it, to avoid accidentally using it in a repository that was not intended to have an annex. See [[git-annex-init]](1) for details. * `describe repository description` Changes the description of a repository. See [[git-annex-describe]](1) for details. * `initremote name type=value [param=value ...]` Creates a new special remote, and adds it to `.git/config`. See [[git-annex-initremote]](1) for details. * `enableremote name [param=value ...]` Enables use of an existing special remote in the current repository. See [[git-annex-enableremote]](1) for details. * `numcopies [N]` Configure desired number of copies. See [[git-annex-numcopies]](1) for details. * `trust [repository ...]` Records that a repository is trusted to not unexpectedly lose content. Use with care. See [[git-annex-trust]](1) for details. * `untrust [repository ...]` Records that a repository is not trusted and could lose content at any time. See [[git-annex-untrust]](1) for details. * `semitrust [repository ...]` Returns a repository to the default semi trusted state. See [[git-annex-semitrust]](1) for details. * `group repository groupname` Add a repository to a group. See [[git-annex-group]](1) for details. * `ungroup repository groupname` Removes a repository from a group. See [[git-annex-ungroup]](1) for details. * `wanted repository [expression]` Get or set preferred content expression. See [[git-annex-wanted]](1) for details. * `groupwanted groupname [expression]` Get or set groupwanted expression. See [[git-annex-groupwanted]](1) for details. * `required repository [expression]` Get or set required content expression. See [[git-annex-required]](1) for details. * `schedule repository [expression]` Get or set scheduled jobs. See [[git-annex-schedule]](1) for details. * `vicfg` Opens EDITOR on a temp file containing most of the above configuration settings, as well as a few others, and when it exits, stores any changes made back to the git-annex branch. See [[git-annex-vicfg]](1) for details. * `direct` Switches a repository to use direct mode, where rather than symlinks to files, the files are directly present in the repository. See [[git-annex-direct]](1) for details. * `indirect` Switches a repository back from direct mode to the default, indirect mode. See [[git-annex-indirect]](1) for details. # REPOSITORY MAINTENANCE COMMANDS * `fsck [path ...]` Checks the annex consistency, and warns about or fixes any problems found. This is a good complement to `git fsck`. See [[git-annex-fsck]](1) for details. * `expire [repository:]time ...` Expires repositories that have not recently performed an activity (such as a fsck). See [[git-annex-expire]](1) for details. * `unused` Checks the annex for data that does not correspond to any files present in any tag or branch, and prints a numbered list of the data. See [[git-annex-unused]](1) for details. * `dropunused [number|range ...]` Drops the data corresponding to the numbers, as listed by the last `git annex unused` See [[git-annex-dropunused]](1) for details. * `addunused [number|range ...]` Adds back files for the content corresponding to the numbers or ranges, as listed by the last `git annex unused`. See [[git-annex-addunused]](1) for details. * `fix [path ...]` Fixes up symlinks that have become broken to again point to annexed content. See [[git-annex-fix]](1) for details. * `merge` Automatically merge changes from remotes. See [[git-annex-merge]](1) for details. * `upgrade` Upgrades the repository to current layout. See [[git-annex-upgrade]](1) for details. * `dead [repository ...] [--key key]` Indicates that a repository or a single key has been irretrievably lost. See [[git-annex-dead]](1) for details. * `forget` Causes the git-annex branch to be rewritten, throwing away historical data about past locations of files. See [[git-annex-forget]](1) for details. * `repair` This can repair many of the problems with git repositories that `git fsck` detects, but does not itself fix. It's useful if a repository has become badly damaged. One way this can happen is if a repository used by git-annex is on a removable drive that gets unplugged at the wrong time. See [[git-annex-repair]](1) for details. # QUERY COMMANDS * `find [path ...]` Outputs a list of annexed files in the specified path. With no path, finds files in the current directory and its subdirectories. See [[git-annex-find]](1) for details. * `whereis [path ...]` Displays information about where the contents of files are located. See [[git-annex-whereis]](1) for details. * `list [path ...]` Displays a table of remotes that contain the contents of the specified files. This is similar to whereis but a more compact display. See [[git-annex-list]](1) for details. * `log [path ...]` Displays the location log for the specified file or files, showing each repository they were added to ("+") and removed from ("-"). See [[git-annex-log]](1) for details. * `info [directory|file|remote|uuid ...]` Displays statistics and other information for the specified item, which can be a directory, or a file, or a remote, or the uuid of a repository. When no item is specified, displays statistics and information for the repository as a whole. See [[git-annex-info]](1) for details. * `version` Shows the version of git-annex, as well as repository version information. See [[git-annex-version]](1) for details. * `map` Generate map of repositories. See [[git-annex-map]](1) for details. # METADATA COMMANDS * `metadata [path ...]` The content of an annexed file can have any number of metadata fields attached to it to describe it. Each metadata field can in turn have any number of values. This command can be used to set metadata, or show the currently set metadata. See [[git-annex-metadata]](1) for details. * `view [tag ...] [field=value ...] [field=glob ...] [!tag ...] [field!=value ...]` Uses metadata to build a view branch of the files in the current branch, and checks out the view branch. Only files in the current branch whose metadata matches all the specified field values and tags will be shown in the view. See [[git-annex-view]](1) for details. * `vpop [N]` Switches from the currently active view back to the previous view. Or, from the first view back to original branch. See [[git-annex-vpop]](1) for details. * `vfilter [tag ...] [field=value ...] [!tag ...] [field!=value ...]` Filters the current view to only the files that have the specified field values and tags. See [[git-annex-vfilter]](1) for details. * `vadd [field=glob ...] [field=value ...] [tag ...]` Changes the current view, adding an additional level of directories to categorize the files. See [[git-annex-vfilter]](1) for details. * `vcycle` When a view involves nested subdirectories, this cycles the order. See [[git-annex-vcycle]](1) for details. # UTILITY COMMANDS * `migrate [path ...]` Changes the specified annexed files to use a different key-value backend. See [[git-annex-migrate]](1) for details. * `reinject src dest` Moves the src file into the annex as the content of the dest file. This can be useful if you have obtained the content of a file from elsewhere and want to put it in the local annex. See [[git-annex-reinject]](1) for details. * `unannex [path ...]` Use this to undo an accidental `git annex add` command. It puts the file back how it was before the add. See [[git-annex-unannex]](1) for details. * `uninit` De-initialize git-annex and clean out repository. See [[git-annex-uninit]](1) for details. * `reinit uuid|description` Initialize repository, reusing old UUID. See [[git-annex-reinit]](1) for details. # PLUMBING COMMANDS * `pre-commit [path ...]` This is meant to be called from git's pre-commit hook. `git annex init` automatically creates a pre-commit hook using this. See [[git-annex-pre-commit]](1) for details. * `lookupkey [file ...]` Looks up key used for file. See [[git-annex-lookupkey]](1) for details. * `contentlocation [key ..]` Looks up location of annexed content for a key. See [[git-annex-contentlocation]](1) for details. * `examinekey [key ...]` Print information that can be determined purely by looking at the key. See [[git-annex-examinekey]](1) for details. * `matchexpression` Checks if a preferred content expression matches provided data. See [[git-annex-matchexpression]](1) for details. * `fromkey [key file]` Manually set up a file in the git repository to link to a specified key. See [[git-annex-fromkey]](1) for details. * `registerurl [key url]` Registers an url for a key. See [[git-annex-registerurl]](1) for details. * `setkey key file` Moves a file into the annex as the content of a key. See [[git-annex-setkey]](1) for details. * `dropkey [key ...]` Drops annexed content for specified keys. See [[git-annex-dropkey]](1) for details. * `transferkey key [--from=remote|--to=remote]` Transfers a key from or to a remote. See [[git-annex-transferkey]](1) for details. * `transferkeys` Used internally by the assistant. See [[git-annex-transferkey]](1) for details. * `setpresentkey key uuid [1|0]` This plumbing-level command changes git-annex's records about whether the specified key's content is present in a remote with the specified uuid. See [[git-annex-setpresentkey]](1) for details. * `readpresentkey key uuid` Read records of where key is present. See [[git-annex-readpresentkey]](1) for details. * `checkpresentkey key remote` Check if key is present in remote. See [[git-annex-checkpresentkey]](1) for details. * `rekey [file key ...]` Change keys used for files. See [[git-annex-rekey]](1) for details. * `findref [ref]` Lists files in a git ref. See [[git-annex-findref]](1) for details. * `proxy -- git cmd [options]` Only useful in a direct mode repository, this runs the specified git command with a temporary work tree, and updates the working tree to reflect any changes staged or committed by the git command. See [[git-annex-proxy]](1) for details. * `resolvemerge` Resolves a conflicted merge, by adding both conflicting versions of the file to the tree, using variants of their filename. This is done automatically when using `git annex sync` or `git annex merge`. See [[git-annex-resolvemerge]](1) for details. * `diffdriver` This can be used to make `git diff` use an external diff driver with annexed files. See [[git-annex-diffdriver]](1) for details. * `smudge` This command lets git-annex be used as a git filter driver, allowing annexed files in the git repository to be unlocked at all times, instead of being symlinks. See [[git-annex-smudge]](1) for details. * `remotedaemon` Detects when network remotes have received git pushes and fetches from them. See [[git-annex-remotedaemon]](1) for details. * `xmppgit` This command is used internally by the assistant to perform git pulls over XMPP. See [[git-annex-xmppgit]](1) for details. # TESTING COMMANDS * `test` This runs git-annex's built-in test suite. See [[git-annex-test]](1) for details. * `testremote remote` This tests a remote by generating some random objects and sending them to the remote, then redownloading them, removing them from the remote, etc. It's safe to run in an existing repository (the repository contents are not altered), although it may perform expensive data transfers. See [[git-annex-testremote]](1) for details. * `fuzztest` Generates random changes to files in the current repository, for use in testing the assistant. See [[git-annex-fuzztest]](1) for details. * `benchmark` This runs git-annex's built-in benchmarks, if it was built with benchmarking support. # COMMON OPTIONS These common options are accepted by all git-annex commands, and may not be explicitly listed on their individual man pages. (Many commands also accept the [[git-annex-matching-options]](1).) * `--force` Force unsafe actions, such as dropping a file's content when no other source of it can be verified to still exist, or adding ignored files. Use with care. * `--fast` Enable less expensive, but also less thorough versions of some commands. What is avoided depends on the command. * `--quiet` Avoid the default verbose display of what is done; only show errors. * `--verbose` Enable verbose display. * `--debug` Show debug messages. * `--no-debug` Disable debug messages. * `--numcopies=n` Overrides the numcopies setting, forcing git-annex to ensure the specified number of copies exist. Note that setting numcopies to 0 is very unsafe. * `--time-limit=time` Limits how long a git-annex command runs. The time can be something like "5h", or "30m" or even "45s" or "10d". Note that git-annex may continue running a little past the specified time limit, in order to finish processing a file. Also, note that if the time limit prevents git-annex from doing all it was asked to, it will exit with a special code, 101. * `--trust=repository` * `--semitrust=repository` * `--untrust=repository` Overrides trust settings for a repository. May be specified more than once. The repository should be specified using the name of a configured remote, or the UUID or description of a repository. * `--trust-glacier-inventory` Amazon Glacier inventories take hours to retrieve, and may not represent the current state of a repository. So git-annex does not trust that files that the inventory claims are in Glacier are really there. This switch can be used to allow it to trust the inventory. Be careful using this, especially if you or someone else might have recently removed a file from Glacier. If you try to drop the only other copy of the file, and this switch is enabled, you could lose data! * `--backend=name` Specifies which key-value backend to use. This can be used when adding a file to the annex, or migrating a file. Once files are in the annex, their backend is known and this option is not necessary. * `--user-agent=value` Overrides the User-Agent to use when downloading files from the web. * `--notify-finish` Caused a desktop notification to be displayed after each successful file download and upload. (Only supported on some platforms, e.g. Linux with dbus. A no-op when not supported.) * `--notify-start` Caused a desktop notification to be displayed when a file upload or download has started, or when a file is dropped. * `-c name=value` Overrides git configuration settings. May be specified multiple times. # CONFIGURATION VIA .git/config Like other git commands, git-annex is configured via `.git/config`. Here are all the supported configuration settings. * `annex.uuid` A unique UUID for this repository (automatically set). * `annex.backends` Space-separated list of names of the key-value backends to use. The first listed is used to store new files by default. This is overridden by annex annex.backend configuration in the .gitattributes files. * `annex.diskreserve` Amount of disk space to reserve. Disk space is checked when transferring content to avoid running out, and additional free space can be reserved via this option, to make space for more important content (such as git commit logs). Can be specified with any commonly used units, for example, "0.5 gb", "500M", or "100 KiloBytes" The default reserve is 1 megabyte. * `annex.largefiles` See "LARGE FILES CONFIGURATION" below. * `annex.addsmallfiles` Controls whether small files (not matching annex.largefiles) should be checked into git by `git annex add`. Defaults to true; set to false to instead make small files be skipped. * `annex.numcopies` This is a deprecated setting. You should instead use the `git annex numcopies` command to configure how many copies of files are kept across all repositories, or the annex.numcopies .gitattributes setting. This config setting is only looked at when `git annex numcopies` has never been configured, and when there's no annex.numcopies setting in the .gitattributes file. Note that setting numcopies to 0 is very unsafe. * `annex.genmetadata` Set this to `true` to make git-annex automatically generate some metadata when adding files to the repository. In particular, it stores year and month metadata, from the file's modification date. When importfeed is used, it stores additional metadata from the feed, such as the author, title, etc. * `annex.used-refspec` This controls which refs `git-annex unused` considers to be used. See REFSPEC FORMAT in [[git-annex-unused]](1) for details. * `annex.queuesize` git-annex builds a queue of git commands, in order to combine similar commands for speed. By default the size of the queue is limited to 10240 commands; this can be used to change the size. If you have plenty of memory and are working with very large numbers of files, increasing the queue size can speed it up. * `annex.bloomcapacity` The `git annex unused` and `git annex sync --content` commands use a bloom filter to determine what files are present in eg, the work tree. The default bloom filter is sized to handle up to 500000 files. If your repository is larger than that, you should increase this value. Larger values will make `git-annex unused` and `git annex sync --content` consume more memory; run `git annex info` for memory usage numbers. * `annex.bloomaccuracy` Adjusts the accuracy of the bloom filter used by `git annex unused` and `git annex sync --content`. The default accuracy is 10000000 -- 1 unused file out of 10000000 will be missed by `git annex unused`. Increasing the accuracy will make `git annex unused` consume more memory; run `git annex info` for memory usage numbers. * `annex.sshcaching` By default, git-annex caches ssh connections using ssh's ControlMaster and ControlPersist settings (if built using a new enough ssh). To disable this, set to `false`. * `annex.alwayscommit` By default, git-annex automatically commits data to the git-annex branch after each command is run. If you have a series of commands that you want to make a single commit, you can run the commands with `-c annex.alwayscommit=false`. You can later commit the data by running `git annex merge` (or by automatic merges) or `git annex sync`. Note that you beware running `git gc` if using this configuration, since it could garbage collect objects that are staged in git-annex's index but not yet committed. * `annex.hardlink` Set this to `true` to make file contents be hard linked between the repository and its remotes when possible, instead of a more expensive copy. Use with caution -- This can invalidate numcopies counting, since with hard links, fewer copies of a file can exist. So, it is a good idea to mark a repository using this setting as untrusted. When a repository is set up using `git clone --shared`, git-annex init will automatically set annex.hardlink and mark the repository as untrusted. * `annex.thin` Set this to `true` to make unlocked files be a hard link to their content in the annex, rather than a second copy. (Only when supported by the file system, and only in repository version 6.) This can save considerable disk space, but modification made to a file will lose the local (and possibly only) copy of the old version. So, enable with care. * `annex.delayadd` Makes the watch and assistant commands delay for the specified number of seconds before adding a newly created file to the annex. Normally this is not needed, because they already wait for all writers of the file to close it. On Mac OSX, when not using direct mode this defaults to 1 second, to work around a bad interaction with software there. * `annex.expireunused` Controls what the assistant does about unused file contents that are stored in the repository. The default is `false`, which causes all old and unused file contents to be retained, unless the assistant is able to move them to some other repository (such as a backup repository). Can be set to a time specification, like "7d" or "1m", and then file contents that have been known to be unused for a week or a month will be deleted. * `annex.fscknudge` When set to false, prevents the webapp from reminding you when using repositories that lack consistency checks. * `annex.autoupgrade` When set to ask (the default), the webapp will check for new versions and prompt if they should be upgraded to. When set to true, automatically upgrades without prompting (on some supported platforms). When set to false, disables any upgrade checking. Note that upgrade checking is only done when git-annex is installed from one of the prebuilt images from its website. This does not bypass e.g., a Linux distribution's own upgrade handling code. This setting also controls whether to restart the git-annex assistant when the git-annex binary is detected to have changed. That is useful no matter how you installed git-annex. * `annex.autocommit` Set to false to prevent the git-annex assistant and git-annex sync from automatically committing changes to files in the repository. * `annex.startupscan` Set to false to prevent the git-annex assistant from scanning the repository for new and changed files on startup. This will prevent it from noticing changes that were made while it was not running, but can be a useful performance tweak for a large repository. * `annex.listen` Configures which address the webapp listens on. The default is localhost. Can be either an IP address, or a hostname that resolves to the desired address. * `annex.debug` Set to true to enable debug logging by default. * `annex.version` Automatically maintained, and used to automate upgrades between versions. * `annex.direct` Set to true when the repository is in direct mode. Should not be set manually; use the "git annex direct" and "git annex indirect" commands instead. * `annex.crippledfilesystem` Set to true if the repository is on a crippled filesystem, such as FAT, which does not support symbolic links, or hard links, or unix permissions. This is automatically probed by "git annex init". * `annex.pidlock` Normally, git-annex uses fine-grained lock files to allow multiple processes to run concurrently without getting in each others' way. That works great, unless you are using git-annex on a filesystem that does not support POSIX fcntl locks. This is sometimes the case when using NFS or Lustre filesystems. To support such situations, you can set annex.pidlock to true, and it will fall back to a single top-level pid file lock. Although, often, you'd really be better off fixing your networked filesystem configuration to support POSIX locks.. And, some networked filesystems are so inconsistent that one node can't reliably tell when the other node is holding a pid lock. Caveat emptor. * `annex.pidlocktimeout` When using pid lock files, it's possible for a stale lock file to get left behind by previous run of git-annex that crashed or was interrupted. This is mostly avoided, but can occur especially when using a network file system. git-annex will wait up to this many seconds for the pid lock file to go away, and will then abort if it cannot continue. Default: 300 * `remote..annex-cost` When determining which repository to transfer annexed files from or to, ones with lower costs are preferred. The default cost is 100 for local repositories, and 200 for remote repositories. * `remote..annex-cost-command` If set, the command is run, and the number it outputs is used as the cost. This allows varying the cost based on e.g., the current network. The cost-command can be any shell command line. * `remote..annex-start-command` A command to run when git-annex begins to use the remote. This can be used to, for example, mount the directory containing the remote. The command may be run repeatedly when multiple git-annex processes are running concurrently. * `remote..annex-stop-command` A command to run when git-annex is done using the remote. The command will only be run once *all* running git-annex processes are finished using the remote. * `remote..annex-shell` Specify an alternative git-annex-shell executable on the remote instead of looking for "git-annex-shell" on the PATH. This is useful if the git-annex-shell program is outside the PATH or has a non-standard name. * `remote..annex-ignore` If set to `true`, prevents git-annex from storing file contents on this remote by default. (You can still request it be used by the `--from` and `--to` options.) This is, for example, useful if the remote is located somewhere without git-annex-shell. (For example, if it's on GitHub). Or, it could be used if the network connection between two repositories is too slow to be used normally. This does not prevent git-annex sync (or the git-annex assistant) from syncing the git repository to the remote. * `remote..annex-sync` If set to `false`, prevents git-annex sync (and the git-annex assistant) from syncing with this remote. * `remote..annex-readonly` If set to `true`, prevents git-annex from making changes to a remote. This both prevents git-annex sync from pushing changes, and prevents storing or removing files from read-only remote. * `remote..annex-verify`, `annex.verify` By default, git-annex will verify the checksums of objects downloaded from remotes. If you trust a remote and don't want the overhead of these checksums, you can set this to `false`. * `remote..annexUrl` Can be used to specify a different url than the regular `remote..url` for git-annex to use when talking with the remote. Similar to the `pushUrl` used by git-push. * `remote..annex-uuid` git-annex caches UUIDs of remote repositories here. * `remote..annex-trustlevel` Configures a local trust level for the remote. This overrides the value configured by the trust and untrust commands. The value can be any of "trusted", "semitrusted" or "untrusted". * `remote..annex-availability` Can be used to tell git-annex whether a remote is LocallyAvailable or GloballyAvailable. Normally, git-annex determines this automatically. * `remote..annex-bare` Can be used to tell git-annex if a remote is a bare repository or not. Normally, git-annex determines this automatically. * `remote..annex-ssh-options` Options to use when using ssh to talk to this remote. * `remote..annex-rsync-options` Options to use when using rsync to or from this remote. For example, to force IPv6, and limit the bandwidth to 100Kbyte/s, set it to `-6 --bwlimit 100` * `remote..annex-rsync-upload-options` Options to use when using rsync to upload a file to a remote. These options are passed after other applicable rsync options, so can be used to override them. For example, to limit upload bandwidth to 10Kbyte/s, set `--bwlimit 10`. * `remote..annex-rsync-download-options` Options to use when using rsync to download a file from a remote. These options are passed after other applicable rsync options, so can be used to override them. * `remote..annex-rsync-transport` The remote shell to use to connect to the rsync remote. Possible values are `ssh` (the default) and `rsh`, together with their arguments, for instance `ssh -p 2222 -c blowfish`; Note that the remote hostname should not appear there, see rsync(1) for details. When the transport used is `ssh`, connections are automatically cached unless `annex.sshcaching` is unset. * `remote..annex-bup-split-options` Options to pass to bup split when storing content in this remote. For example, to limit the bandwidth to 100Kbyte/s, set it to `--bwlimit 100k` (There is no corresponding option for bup join.) * `remote..annex-gnupg-options` Options to pass to GnuPG for symmetric encryption. For instance, to use the AES cipher with a 256 bits key and disable compression, set it to `--cipher-algo AES256 --compress-algo none`. (These options take precedence over the default GnuPG configuration, which is otherwise used.) * `annex.ssh-options`, `annex.rsync-options`, `annex.rsync-upload-options`, `annex.rsync-download-options`, `annex.bup-split-options`, `annex.gnupg-options` Default options to use if a remote does not have more specific options as described above. * `annex.web-options` Options to pass when running wget or curl. For example, to force IPv4 only, set it to "-4" * `annex.quvi-options` Options to pass to quvi when using it to find the url to download for a video. * `annex.aria-torrent-options` Options to pass to aria2c when using it to download a torrent. * `annex.http-headers` HTTP headers to send when downloading from the web. Multiple lines of this option can be set, one per header. * `annex.http-headers-command` If set, the command is run and each line of its output is used as a HTTP header. This overrides annex.http-headers. * `annex.web-download-command` Use to specify a command to run to download a file from the web. (The default is to use wget or curl.) In the command line, %url is replaced with the url to download, and %file is replaced with the file that it should be saved to. * `annex.secure-erase-command` This can be set to a command that should be run whenever git-annex removes the content of a file from the repository. In the command line, %file is replaced with the file that should be erased. For example, to use the wipe command, set it to `wipe -f %file`. * `remote..rsyncurl` Used by rsync special remotes, this configures the location of the rsync repository to use. Normally this is automatically set up by `git annex initremote`, but you can change it if needed. * `remote..buprepo` Used by bup special remotes, this configures the location of the bup repository to use. Normally this is automatically set up by `git annex initremote`, but you can change it if needed. * `remote..ddarrepo` Used by ddar special remotes, this configures the location of the ddar repository to use. Normally this is automatically set up by `git annex initremote`, but you can change it if needed. * `remote..directory` Used by directory special remotes, this configures the location of the directory where annexed files are stored for this remote. Normally this is automatically set up by `git annex initremote`, but you can change it if needed. * `remote..s3` Used to identify Amazon S3 special remotes. Normally this is automatically set up by `git annex initremote`. * `remote..glacier` Used to identify Amazon Glacier special remotes. Normally this is automatically set up by `git annex initremote`. * `remote..webdav` Used to identify webdav special remotes. Normally this is automatically set up by `git annex initremote`. * `remote..tahoe` Used to identify tahoe special remotes. Points to the configuration directory for tahoe. * `remote..annex-xmppaddress` Used to identify the XMPP address of a Jabber buddy. Normally this is set up by the git-annex assistant when pairing over XMPP. * `remote..gcrypt` Used to identify gcrypt special remotes. Normally this is automatically set up by `git annex initremote`. It is set to "true" if this is a gcrypt remote. If the gcrypt remote is accessible over ssh and has git-annex-shell available to manage it, it's set to "shell". * `remote..hooktype`, `remote..externaltype` Used by hook special remotes and external special remotes to record the type of the remote. * `annex.tune.objecthash1`, `annex.tune.objecthashlower`, `annex.tune.branchhash1` These can be passed to `git annex init` to tune the repository. They cannot be safely changed in a running repository. For details, see . # CONFIGURATION VIA .gitattributes The key-value backend used when adding a new file to the annex can be configured on a per-file-type basis via `.gitattributes` files. In the file, the `annex.backend` attribute can be set to the name of the backend to use. For example, this here's how to use the WORM backend by default, but the SHA256E backend for ogg files: * annex.backend=WORM *.ogg annex.backend=SHA256E There is a annex.largefiles attribute; see "LARGE FILES CONFIGURATION" below. The numcopies setting can also be configured on a per-file-type basis via the `annex.numcopies` attribute in `.gitattributes` files. This overrides other numcopies settings. For example, this makes two copies be needed for wav files and 3 copies for flac files: *.wav annex.numcopies=2 *.flac annex.numcopies=3 Note that setting numcopies to 0 is very unsafe. These settings are honored by git-annex whenever it's operating on a matching file. However, when using --all, --unused, or --key to specify keys to operate on, git-annex is operating on keys and not files, so will not honor the settings from .gitattributes. For this reason, the `git annex numcopies` command is useful to configure a global default for numcopies. Also note that when using views, only the toplevel .gitattributes file is preserved in the view, so other settings in other files won't have any effect. # LARGE FILES CONFIGURATION Normally commands like `git annex add` always add files to the annex. And when using the v6 repository mode, even `git add` and `git commit -a` will add files to the annex. However, sometimes it's useful to keep the content of some smaller files in git, any only annex the larger files. For example, a game's code should be committed to git while its artwork is stored in the annex. The annex.largefiles configuration meets this need. It's checked by `git annex add`, by `git add` and `git commit -a` (in v6 repositories), by `git annex import` and the assistant. It's also used by `git annex addurl` and `git annex importfeed` when downloading files. When a file does not match annex.largefiles, it will be added to git instead of to the annex. There are two ways to configure annex.largefiles. Setting it in the `.gitattributes` file is recommended to consistently use the same configuration across different checkouts of the repository. Setting the annex.largefiles git configuration lets different checkouts behave differently. The git configuration overrides the `.gitattributes` configuration. For example, in the game scenario, here's how to make only files of a certian size be annexed, and never source code files: git config annex.largefiles 'largerthan=100kb and (not include=*.c)' The value is a preferred content expression. See [[git-annex-preferred-content]](1) for details. To configure the same thing in the `.gitattributes` file, looks a little bit different: * annex.largefiles=(largerthan=100kb) *.c annex.largefiles=nothing That has the same effect as the git configuration, because the attribute for *.c overrides the previous attribute. Note that, since git attribute values cannot contain whitespace, it's useful to instead parenthesize the terms of the preferred content expression. This trick allows setting the annex.largefiles attribute to more complicated expressions. For example, this is the same as the git config shown earlier: * annex.largefiles=(largerthan=100kb)and(not(include=*.c)) By the way, if you've set up an annex.largefiles configuration but want to force a file to be stored in the annex, you can temporarily override the configuration like this: git annex add -c annex.largefiles=anything smallfile # EXIT STATUS git-annex, when called as a git subcommand, may return exit codes 0 or 1 for success or failures, or, more rarely, 127 or 128 for certain very specific failures. git-annex itself should return 0 on success and 1 on failure, unless the `--time-limit=time` option is hit, in which case it returns with exit code 101. # FILES These files are used by git-annex: `.git/annex/objects/` in your git repository contains the annexed file contents that are currently available. Annexed files in your git repository symlink to that content. `.git/annex/` in your git repository contains other run-time information used by git-annex. `~/.config/git-annex/autostart` is a list of git repositories to start the git-annex assistant in. `.git/hooks/pre-commit-annex` in your git repository will be run whenever a commit is made to the HEAD branch, either by git commit, git-annex sync, or the git-annex assistant. `.git/hooks/post-update-annex` in your git repository will be run whenever the git-annex branch is updated. You can make this hook run `git update-server-info` when publishing a git-annex repository by http. # SEE ALSO More git-annex documentation is available on its web site, If git-annex is installed from a package, a copy of its documentation should be included, in, for example, `/usr/share/doc/git-annex/`. # AUTHOR Joey Hess Warning: Automatically converted into a man page by mdwn2man. Edit with care.