1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
|
git-annex allows you to store arbitrary metadata about files stored in the
git-annex repository. The metadata is stored in the `git-annex` branch, and
so is automatically kept in sync with the rest of git-annex's state, such
as [[location_tracking]] information.
Some of the things you can do with metadata include:
* Using `git annex metadata file` to show all
the metadata associated with a file.
* [[tips/metadata_driven_views]]
* Limiting the files git-annex commands act on to those with
or without particular metadata.
For example `git annex find --metadata tag=foo --or --metadata tag=bar`
* Using it in [[preferred_content]] expressions.
For example "tag=important or not author=me"
Each file (actually the underlying key) can have any number of metadata
fields, which each can have any number of values. For example, to tag
files, the `tag` field is typically used, with values set to each tag that
applies to the file.
The field names are limited to alphanumerics (and `[_-.]`), and are case
insensitive. The metadata values can contain absolutely anything you
like -- but you're recommended to keep it simple and reasonably short.
Here are some metadata fields that git-annex has special support for:
* `tag` - With each tag being a different value.
* `year`, `month` - When this particular version of the file came into
being.
* `$field-lastchanged` - This is automatically maintained for each
field that's set, and gives the date and time of the most recent
change to the field. It cannot be modified directly.
* `lastchanged` - This is automatically maintained, giving the data and time
of the last change to any of the metadata of a file.
To make git-annex automatically set the year and month when adding files,
run `git config annex.genmetadata true`. Also, see
[[tips/automatically_adding_metadata]].
git-annex's metadata can be updated in a distributed fashion. For example,
two users, each with their own clone of a repository, can set and unset
metadata at the same time, even for the same field of the same file.
When they push their changes, `git annex merge` will combine their
metadata changes in a consistent and (probably) intuitive way.
See [[the metadata design page|design/metadata]] for more details.
|
