Provided by: git-annex_10.20230626-1_amd64 
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
help
Display built-in help.
For help on a specific command, use git annex help command
add [path ...]
Adds files to the annex.
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 ...]
Show the working tree status. (deprecated)
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.
pull [remote ...]
Pull content from remotes.
See git-annex-pull(1) for details.
push [remote ...]
Push content to remotes.
See git-annex-push(1) for details.
sync [remote ...]
Synchronize local repository with remotes.
See git-annex-sync(1) for details.
assist [remote ...]
Add files and sync changes with remotes.
See git-annex-assist(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 --from remote branch[:subdir] | [path ...]
Add a tree of files to the repository.
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.
export treeish --to remote
Export content to a remote.
See git-annex-export(1) for details.
undo [filename|directory] ...
Undo last change to a file or directory.
See git-annex-undo(1) for details.
multicast
Multicast file distribution.
See git-annex-multicast(1) for details.
watch Daemon to watch for changes and autocommit.
See git-annex-watch(1) for details.
assistant
Daemon to automatically sync changes.
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.
remotedaemon
Persistant communication with remotes.
See git-annex-remotedaemon(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.
configremote name [param=value ...]
Changes configuration of an existing special remote.
See git-annex-configremote(1) for details.
renameremote
Renames a special remote.
See git-annex-renameremote(1) for details.
enable-tor
Sets up tor hidden service.
See git-annex-enable-tor(1) for details.
numcopies [N]
Configure desired number of copies.
See git-annex-numcopies(1) for details.
mincopies [N]
Configure minimum number of copies.
See git-annex-mincopies(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.
config Get and set other configuration stored in git-annex branch.
See git-annex-config(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.
adjust Switches a repository to use an adjusted branch, which can automatically unlock all
files, etc.
See git-annex-adjust(1) for details.
direct Switches a repository to use direct mode. (deprecated)
See git-annex-direct(1) for details.
indirect
Switches a repository to use indirect mode. (deprecated)
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.
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.
filter-branch
Produces a filtered version of the git-annex branch.
See git-annex-filter-branch(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.
p2p Configure peer-2-Peer links between repositories.
See git-annex-p2p(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.
whereused
Finds what files use or used a key.
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.
inprogress
Access files while they're being downloaded.
See git-annex-inprogress(1) for details.
findkeys
Similar to git-annex find, but operating on keys.
See git-annex-findkeys(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?=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.
post-receive
This is meant to be called from git's post-receive hook. git annex init
automatically creates a post-receive hook using this.
See git-annex-post-receive(1) for details.
lookupkey [file ...]
Looks up key used for file.
See git-annex-lookupkey(1) for details.
calckey [file ...]
Calculates the key that would be used to refer to a file.
See git-annex-calckey(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.
unregisterurl [key url]
Unregisters an url for a key.
See git-annex-unregisterurl(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.
transferrer
Used internally by git-annex to transfer content.
See git-annex-transferrer(1) for details.
transferkeys
Used internally by old versions of 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.
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 pull 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 regular files instead of symlinks.
See git-annex-smudge(1) for details.
filter-process
An alternative implementation of a git filter driver, that is faster in some
situations and slower in others than git-annex smudge.
See git-annex-filter-process(1) for details.
restage
Restages unlocked files in the git index.
See git-annex-restage(1) for details.
findref [ref]
Lists files in a git ref. (deprecated)
See git-annex-findref(1) for details.
proxy -- git cmd [options]
Bypass direct mode guard. (deprecated)
See git-annex-proxy(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.
See git-annex-benchmark(1) for details.
ADDON COMMANDS
In addition to all the commands listed above, more commands can be added to git-annex by
dropping commands named like "git-annex-foo" into a directory in the PATH.
CONFIGURATION
Like other git commands, git-annex is configured via .git/config. These settings, as well
as relevant git config settings, are the ones git-annex uses.
(Some of these settings can also be set, across all clones of the repository, using git-
annex-config. See its man page for a list.)
annex.uuid
A unique UUID for this repository (automatically set).
annex.backend
Name of the default key-value backend to use when adding new files to the
repository. See git-annex-backends(1) for information about available backends.
This is overridden by annex annex.backend configuration in the .gitattributes
files, and by the --backend option.
(This used to be named annex.backends, and that will still be used if set.)
annex.securehashesonly
Set to true to indicate that the repository should only use cryptographically
secure hashes (SHA2, SHA3) and not insecure hashes (MD5, SHA1) for content.
When this is set, the contents of files using cryptographically insecure hashes
will not be allowed to be added to the repository.
Also, git-annex fsck will complain about any files present in the repository that
use insecure hashes. And, git-annex import --no-content will refuse to import files
from special remotes using insecure hashes.
To configure the behavior in new clones of the repository, this can be set using
git-annex-config.
annex.maxextensionlength
Maximum length, in bytes, of what is considered a filename extension. This is used
when adding a file to a backend that preserves filename extensions, and also when
generating a view branch.
The default length is 4, which allows extensions like "jpeg". The dot before the
extension is not counted part of its length. At most two extensions at the end of a
filename will be preserved, e.g. .gz or .tar.gz .
annex.diskreserve
Amount of disk space to reserve. Disk space is checked when transferring annexed
content to avoid running out, and additional free space can be reserved via this
option, to make space for other data (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 100 megabytes.
annex.skipunknown
Set to true to make commands like "git-annex get" silently skip over items that are
listed in the command line, but are not checked into git.
Set to false to make it an error for commands like "git-annex get" to be asked to
operate on files that are not checked into git. (This is the default in recent
versions of git-annex.)
Note that, when annex.skipunknown is false, a command like "git-annex get ." will
fail if no files in the current directory are checked into git, but a command like
"git-annex get" will not fail, because the current directory is not listed, but is
implicit. Commands like "git-annex get foo/" will fail if no files in the directory
are checked into git, but if at least one file is, it will ignore other files that
are not. This is all the same as the behavior of "git-ls files --error-unmatch".
Also note that git-annex skips files that are checked into git, but are not annexed
files, this setting does not affect that.
annex.largefiles
Used to configure which files are large enough to be added to the annex. It is an
expression that matches the large files, eg "include=*.mp3 or largerthan=500kb" See
git-annex-matching-expression(1) for details on the syntax.
Overrides any annex.largefiles attributes in .gitattributes files.
To configure a default annex.largefiles for all clones of the repository, this can
be set in git-annex-config(1).
This configures the behavior of both git-annex and git when adding files to the
repository. By default, git-annex add adds all files to the annex (except
dotfiles), and git add adds files to git (unless they were added to the annex
previously). When annex.largefiles is configured, both git annex add and git add
will add matching large files to the annex, and the other files to git.
Other git-annex commands also honor annex.largefiles, including git annex import,
git annex addurl, git annex importfeed, git-annex assist, and the git-annex
assistant.
annex.dotfiles
Normally, dotfiles are assumed to be files like .gitignore, whose content should
always be part of the git repository, so they will not be added to the annex.
Setting annex.dotfiles to true makes dotfiles be added to the annex the same as any
other file.
To annex only some dotfiles, set this and configure annex.largefiles to match the
ones you want. For example, to match only dotfiles ending in ".big"
git config annex.largefiles "(include=.*.big or include=*/.*.big) or (exclude=.*
and exclude=*/.*)"
git config annex.dotfiles true
To configure a default annex.dotfiles for all clones of the repository, this can be
set in git-annex-config(1).
annex.gitaddtoannex
Setting this to false will prevent git add from adding files to the annex, despite
the annex.largefiles configuration.
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.addunlocked
Commands like git-annex add default to adding files to the repository in locked
form. This can make them add the files in unlocked form, the same as if git-
annex-unlock(1) were run on the files.
This can be set to "true" to add everything unlocked, or it can be a more
complicated expression that matches files by name, size, or content. See git-
annex-matching-expression(1) for details.
To configure a default annex.addunlocked for all clones of the repository, this can
be set in git-annex-config(1).
(Using git add always adds files in unlocked form and it is not affected by this
setting.)
When a repository has core.symlinks set to false, or has an adjusted unlocked
branch checked out, this setting is ignored, and files are always added to the
repository in unlocked form.
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.
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, month, and day 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.jobs
Configure the number of concurrent jobs to run. Default is 1.
Only git-annex commands that support the --jobs option will use this.
Setting this to "cpus" will run one job per CPU core.
When the --batch option is used, this configuration is ignored.
annex.adjustedbranchrefresh
When git-annex-adjust(1) is used to set up an adjusted branch that needs to be
refreshed after getting or dropping files, this config controls how frequently the
branch is refreshed.
Refreshing the branch takes some time, so doing it after every file can be too
slow. (It also can generate a lot of dangling git objects.) The default value is 0
(or false), which does not refresh the branch. Setting 1 (or true) will refresh
only once, after git-annex has made other changes. Setting 2 refreshes after every
file, 3 after every other file, and so on; setting 100 refreshes after every 99
files.
(If git-annex gets faster in the future, refresh rates will increase proportional
to the speed improvements.)
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.adviceNoSshCaching
When git-annex is unable to use ssh connection caching, or has been configured not
to, and concurrency is enabled, it will warn that this might result in multiple ssh
processes prompting for passwords at the same time. To disable that warning, eg if
you have configured ssh connection caching yourself, or have ssh agent caching
passwords, set this 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.
annex.commitmessage
When git-annex updates the git-annex branch, it usually makes up its own commit
message (eg "update"), since users rarely look at or care about changes to that
branch. If you do care, you can specify this setting by running commands with -c
annex.commitmessage=whatever
This works well in combination with annex.alwayscommit=false, to gather up a set of
changes and commit them with a message you specify.
annex.alwayscompact
By default, git-annex compacts data it records in the git-annex branch. Setting
this to false avoids doing that compaction in some cases, which can speed up
operations that populate the git-annex branch with a lot of data. However, when
used with operations that overwrite old values in the git-annex branch, that may
cause the git-annex branch to use more disk space, and so slow down reading data
from it.
An example of a command that can be sped up by using -c annex.alwayscompact=false
is git-annex registerurl --batch, when adding a large number of urls to the same
key.
This option was first supported by git-annex version 10.20220724. It is not
entirely safe to set this option in a repository that may also be used by an older
version of git-annex at the same time as a version that supports this option.
annex.allowsign
By default git-annex avoids gpg signing commits that it makes when they're not the
purpose of a command, but only a side effect. That default avoids lots of gpg
password prompts when commit.gpgSign is set. A command like git annex sync or git
annex merge will gpg sign its commit, but a command like git annex get, that
updates the git-annex branch, will not. The assistant also avoids signing commits.
Setting annex.allowsign to true lets all commits be signed, as controlled by
commit.gpgSign and other git configuration.
annex.merge-annex-branches
By default, git-annex branches that have been pulled from remotes are automatically
merged into the local git-annex branch, so that git-annex has the most up-to-date
possible knowledge.
To avoid that merging, set this to "false".
This can be useful particularly when you don't have write permission to the
repository. While git-annex is mostly able to work in a read-only repository with
unmerged git-annex branches, some things do not work, and when it does work it will
be slower due to needing to look at each of the unmerged branches.
annex.private
When this is set to true, no information about the repository will be recorded in
the git-annex branch.
For example, to make a repository without any mention of it ever appearing in the
git-annex branch:
git init myprivate
cd myprivaterepo
git config annex.private true
git annex init
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.
When annex.thin is also set, setting annex.hardlink has no effect.
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. This can save considerable disk space, but when a
modification is made to a file, you will lose the local (and possibly only) copy of
the old version. Any other, locked files in the repository that pointed to that
content will get broken as well (git-annex fsck will detect and clean up after
that). So, enable this with care.
After setting (or unsetting) this, you should run git annex fix to fix up the
annexed files in the work tree to be hard links (or copies).
Note that this has no effect when the filesystem does not support hard links. And
when multiple files in the work tree have the same content, only one of them gets
hard linked to the annex.
annex.supportunlocked
By default git-annex supports unlocked files as well as locked files, so this
defaults to true. If set to false, git-annex will only support locked files. That
will avoid doing the work needed to support unlocked files.
Note that setting this to false does not prevent a repository from having unlocked
files added to it, and in that case the content of the files will not be accessible
until they are locked.
After changing this config, you need to re-run git-annex init for it to take
effect.
annex.resolvemerge
Set to false to prevent merge conflicts in the checked out branch being
automatically resolved by the git-annex assitant, git-annex assist, git-annex sync,
git-annex pull, git-annex merge, and the git-annex post-receive hook.
To configure the behavior in all clones of the repository, this can be set in git-
annex-config(1).
annex.synccontent
Set to true to make git-annex sync default to transferring annexed content.
Set to false to prevent git-annex assist, git-annex pull and git-annex push from
transferring annexed content.
To configure the behavior in all clones of the repository, this can be set in git-
annex-config(1).
annex.synconlyannex
Set to true to make git-annex assist, git-annex sync, git-annex pull, and git-annex
push default to only operating on the git-annex branch and annexed content.
To configure the behavior in all clones of the repository, this can be set in git-
annex-config(1).
annex.viewunsetdirectory
This configures the name of a directory that is used in a view to contain files
that do not have metadata set. The default name for the directory is "_". See git-
annex-view(1) for details.
annex.debug
Set to true to enable debug logging by default.
annex.debugfilter
Set to configure which debug messages to display (when debug message display has
been enabled by annex.debug or --debug). The value is one or more module names,
separated by commas.
annex.version
The current version of the git-annex repository. This is maintained by git-annex
and should never be manually changed.
annex.autoupgraderepository
When an old git-annex repository version is no longer supported, git-annex will
normally automatically upgrade the repository to the new version. It may also
sometimes upgrade from an old repository version that is still supported but that
is not as good as a later version.
If this is set to false, git-annex won't automatically upgrade the repository. If
the repository version is not supported, git-annex will instead exit with an error
message. If it is still supported, git-annex will continue to work.
You can run git annex upgrade yourself when you are ready to upgrade the
repository.
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
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
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. This timeout
prevents git-annex waiting forever in such a situation.
annex.dbdir
The directory where git-annex should store its sqlite databases. The default
location is inside .git/annex/.
Certian filesystems, such as cifs, may not support locking operations that sqlite
needs, and setting this to a directory on another filesystem can work around such a
problem.
This can safely be set to the same directory in the configuration of multiple
repositories; each repository will use a subdirectory for its sqlite database.
annex.cachecreds
When "true" (the default), git-annex will cache credentials used to access special
remotes in files in .git/annex/creds/ that only you can read. To disable that
caching, set to "false", and credentials will only be read from the environment, or
if they have been embedded in encrypted form in the git repository, will be
extracted and decrypted each time git-annex needs to access the remote.
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.
annex.freezecontent-command, annex.thawcontent-command
Usually the write permission bits are unset to protect annexed objects from being
modified or deleted. The freezecontent-command is run after git-annex has removed
(or attempted to remove) the write bit, and can be used to prevent writing in some
other way. The thawcontent-command should undo its effect, and is run before git-
annex restores the write bit.
In the command line, %path is replaced with the file or directory to operate on.
(When annex.crippledfilesystem is set, git-annex will not try to remove/restore the
write bit, but it will still run these hooks.)
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 and should never be set in global git
configuration. For details, see <https://git-annex.branchable.com/tuning/>.
CONFIGURATION OF REMOTES
Remotes are configured using these settings in .git/config.
remote.<name>.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.<name>.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.
remote.<name>.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.<name>.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.<name>.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.<name>.annex-ignore
If set to true, prevents git-annex from storing annexed 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, git-annex pull, git-annex push, git-annex
assist or the git-annex assistant from operating on the git repository.
remote.<name>.annex-ignore-command
If set, the command is run, and if it exits nonzero, that's the same as setting
annex-ignore to true. This allows controlling behavior based on e.g., the current
network.
remote.<name>.annex-sync
If set to false, prevents git-annex sync (and git-annex pull, git-annex push, git-
annex assist, and the git-annex assistant) from operating on this remote by
default.
remote.<name>.annex-sync-command
If set, the command is run, and if it exits nonzero, that's the same as setting
annex-sync to false. This allows controlling behavior based on e.g., the current
network.
remote.<name>.annex-pull
If set to false, prevents git-annex pull, git-annex sync, git-annex assist and the
git-annex assistant from ever pulling (or fetching) from the remote.
remote.<name>.annex-push
If set to false, prevents git-annex push, git-annex sync, git-annex assist and the
git-annex assistant from ever pushing to the remote.
remote.<name>.annex-readonly
If set to true, prevents git-annex from making changes to a remote. This prevents
git-annex sync and git-annex assist from pushing changes to a git repository. And
it prevents storing or removing files from read-only remote.
remote.<name>.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.
Note that even when this is set to false, git-annex does verification in some edge
cases, where it's likely the case than an object was downloaded incorrectly, or
when needed for security.
remote.<name>.annex-tracking-branch
This is for use with special remotes that support exports and imports.
When set to eg, "master", this tells git-annex that you want the special remote to
track that branch.
When set to eg, "master:subdir", the special remote tracks only the subdirectory of
that branch.
Setting this enables some other command to work with these special remotes: git-
annex pull will import changes from the remote and merge them into the
annex-tracking-branch. And git-annex push will export changes to the remote.
Higher-level commands git-annex sync --content and git-annex assist both import and
export.
remote.<name>.annex-export-tracking
Deprecated name for remote.<name>.annex-tracking-branch. Will still be used if it's
configured and remote.<name>.annex-tracking-branch is not.
remote.<name>.annexUrl
Can be used to specify a different url than the regular remote.<name>.url for git-
annex to use when talking with the remote. Similar to the pushUrl used by git-push.
remote.<name>.annex-uuid
git-annex caches UUIDs of remote repositories here.
remote.<name>.annex-config-uuid
Used for some special remotes, points to a different special remote configuration
to use.
remote.<name>.annex-retry, annex.retry
Number of times a transfer that fails can be retried. (default 0)
remote.<name>.annex-forward-retry, annex.forward-retry
If a transfer made some forward progress before failing, this allows it to be
retried even when annex.retry does not. The value is the maximum number of times
to do that. (default 5)
When both annex.retry and this are set, the maximum number of retries is the larger
of the two.
remote.<name>.annex-retry-delay, annex.retry-delay
Number of seconds to delay before the first retry of a transfer. When making
multiple retries of the same transfer, the delay doubles after each retry. (default
1)
remote.<name>.annex-bwlimit, annex.bwlimit
This can be used to limit how much bandwidth is used for a transfer from or to a
remote.
For example, to limit transfers to 1 mebibyte per second: git config annex.bwlimit
"1MiB"
This will work with many remotes, including git remotes, but not for remotes where
the transfer is run by a separate program than git-annex.
remote.<name>.annex-stalldetecton, annex.stalldetection
Configuring this lets stalled or too-slow transfers be detected, and dealt with, so
rather than getting stuck, git-annex will cancel the stalled operation. The
transfer will be considered to have failed, so settings like annex.retry will
control what it does next.
By default, git-annex detects transfers that have probably stalled, and suggests
configuring this. If it is incorrectly detecting stalls, setting this to "false"
will avoid that.
Set to "true" to enable automatic stall detection. If a remote does not update its
progress consistently, no automatic stall detection will be done. And it may take a
while for git-annex to decide a remote is really stalled when using automatic stall
detection, since it needs to be conservative about what looks like a stall.
For more fine control over what constitutes a stall, set to a value in the form
"$amount/$timeperiod" to specify how much data git-annex should expect to see
flowing, minimum, over a given period of time.
For example, to detect outright stalls where no data has been transferred after 30
seconds: git config annex.stalldetection "1KB/30s"
Or, if you have a remote on a USB drive that is normally capable of several
megabytes per second, but has bad sectors where it gets stuck for a long time, you
could use: git config remote.usbdrive.annex-stalldetection "1MB/1m"
This is not enabled by default, because it can make git-annex use more resources.
To be able to cancel stalls, git-annex has to run transfers in separate processes
(one per concurrent job). So it may need to open more connections to a remote than
usual, or the communication with those processes may make it a bit slower.
remote.<name>.annex-checkuuid
This only affects remotes that have their url pointing to a directory on the same
system. git-annex normally checks the uuid of such remotes each time it's run,
which lets it transparently deal with different drives being mounted to the
location at different times.
Setting annex-checkuuid to false will prevent it from checking the uuid at startup
(although the uuid is still verified before making any changes to the remote
repository). This may be useful to set to prevent unnecessary spin-up or
automounting of a drive.
remote.<name>.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.<name>.annex-availability
Can be used to tell git-annex whether a remote is LocallyAvailable or
GloballyAvailable. Normally, git-annex determines this automatically.
remote.<name>.annex-speculate-present
Set to "true" to make git-annex speculate that this remote may contain the content
of any file, even though its normal location tracking does not indicate that it
does. This will cause git-annex to try to get all file contents from the remote.
Can be useful in setting up a caching remote.
remote.<name>.annex-private
When this is set to true, no information about the remote will be recorded in the
git-annex branch. This is mostly useful for special remotes, and is set when using
git-annex-initremote(1) with the --private option.
remote.<name>.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.<name>.annex-ssh-options
Options to use when using ssh to talk to this remote.
remote.<name>.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
Note that git-annex-shell has a whitelist of allowed rsync options, and others will
not be be passed to the remote rsync. So using some options may break the
communication between the local and remote rsyncs.
remote.<name>.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.<name>.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.<name>.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.<name>.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.<name>.annex-gnupg-options
Options to pass to GnuPG when it's encrypting data. 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.)
remote.<name>.annex-gnupg-decrypt-options
Options to pass to GnuPG when it's decrypting data. (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, annex.gnupg-decrypt-options
Default options to use if a remote does not have more specific options as described
above.
remote.<name>.annex-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.<name>.annex-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.<name>.annex-borgrepo
Used by borg special remotes, this configures the location of the borg repository
to use. Normally this is automatically set up by git annex initremote, but you can
change it if needed.
remote.<name>.annex-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.<name>.annex-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.<name>.annex-adb
Used to identify remotes on Android devices accessed via adb. Normally this is
automatically set up by git annex initremote.
remote.<name>.annex-androiddirectory
Used by adb special remotes, this is the directory on the Android device where
files are stored for this remote. Normally this is automatically set up by git
annex initremote, but you can change it if needed.
remote.<name>.annex-androidserial
Used by adb special remotes, this is the serial number of the Android device used
by the remote. Normally this is automatically set up by git annex initremote, but
you can change it if needed, eg when upgrading to a new Android device.
remote.<name>.annex-s3
Used to identify Amazon S3 special remotes. Normally this is automatically set up
by git annex initremote.
remote.<name>.annex-glacier
Used to identify Amazon Glacier special remotes. Normally this is automatically
set up by git annex initremote.
remote.<name>.annex-web
Used to identify web special remotes. Normally this is automatically set up by git
annex initremote.
remote.<name>.annex-webdav
Used to identify webdav special remotes. Normally this is automatically set up by
git annex initremote.
remote.<name>.annex-tahoe
Used to identify tahoe special remotes. Points to the configuration directory for
tahoe.
remote.<name>.annex-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.<name>.annex-git-lfs
Used to identify git-lfs special remotes. Normally this is automatically set up by
git annex initremote.
It is set to "true" if this is a git-lfs remote.
remote.<name>.annex-httpalso
Used to identify httpalso special remotes. Normally this is automatically set up
by git annex initremote.
remote.<name>.annex-externaltype
Used external special remotes to record the type of the remote.
Eg, if this is set to "foo", git-annex will run a "git-annex-remote-foo" program to
communicate with the external special remote.
If this is set to "readonly", then git-annex will not run any external special
remote program, but will try to access things stored in the remote using http. That
only works for some external special remotes, so consult the documentation of the
one you are using.
remote.<name>.annex-hooktype
Used by hook special remotes to record the type of the remote.
annex.web-options
Options to pass to curl when git-annex uses it to download urls (rather than the
default built-in url downloader).
For example, to force IPv4 only, set it to "-4".
Setting this option makes git-annex use curl, but only when
annex.security.allowed-ip-addresses is configured in a specific way. See its
documentation.
Setting this option prevents git-annex from using git-credential for prompting for
http passwords. Instead, you can include "--netrc" to make curl use your ~/.netrc
file and record the passwords there.
annex.youtube-dl-options
Options to pass to yt-dlp (or deprecated youtube-dl) when using it to find the url
to download for a video.
Some options may break git-annex's integration with yt-dlp. For example, the
--output option could cause it to store files somewhere git-annex won't find them.
Avoid setting here or in the yt-dlp config file any options that cause it to
download more than one file, or to store the file anywhere other than the current
working directory.
annex.youtube-dl-command
Default is to use "yt-dlp" or if that is not available in the PATH, to use
"youtube-dl".
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.security.allowed-url-schemes
List of URL schemes that git-annex is allowed to download content from. The
default is "http https ftp".
Think very carefully before changing this; there are security implications. For
example, if it's changed to allow "file" URLs, then anyone who can get a commit
into your git-annex repository could git-annex addurl a pointer to a private file
located outside that repository, possibly causing it to be copied into your
repository and transferred on to other remotes, exposing its content.
Any url schemes supported by curl can be listed here, but you will also need to
configure annex.allowed-ip-addresses to allow using curl.
Some special remotes support their own domain-specific URL schemes; those are not
affected by this configuration setting.
annex.security.allowed-ip-addresses
By default, git-annex only makes connections to public IP addresses; it will refuse
to use HTTP and other servers on localhost or on a private network.
This setting can override that behavior, allowing access to particular IP addresses
that would normally be blocked. For example "127.0.0.1 ::1" allows access to
localhost (both IPV4 and IPV6). To allow access to all IP addresses, use "all"
Think very carefully before changing this; there are security implications. Anyone
who can get a commit into your git-annex repository could git annex addurl an url
on a private server, possibly causing it to be downloaded into your repository and
transferred to other remotes, exposing its content.
Note that, since the interfaces of curl and yt-dlp do not allow these IP address
restrictions to be enforced, curl and yt-dlp will never be used unless
annex.security.allowed-ip-addresses=all.
To allow accessing local or private IP addresses on only specific ports, use the
syntax "[addr]:port". For example, "[127.0.0.1]:80 [127.0.0.1]:443 [::1]:80
[::1]:443" allows localhost on the http ports only.
annex.security.allowed-http-addresses
Old name for annex.security.allowed-ip-addresses. If set, this is treated the same
as having annex.security.allowed-ip-addresses set.
annex.security.allow-unverified-downloads
For security reasons, git-annex refuses to download content from most special
remotes when it cannot check a hash to verify that the correct content was
downloaded. This particularly impacts downloading the content of URL or WORM keys,
which lack hashes.
The best way to avoid problems due to this is to migrate files away from such keys,
before their content reaches a special remote. See git-annex-migrate(1).
When the content is only available from a special remote, you can use this
configuration to force git-annex to download it. But you do so at your own risk,
and it's very important you read and understand the information below first!
Downloading unverified content from encrypted special remotes is prevented, because
the special remote could send some other encrypted content than what you expect,
causing git-annex to decrypt data that you never checked into git-annex, and
risking exposing the decrypted data to any non-encrypted remotes you send content
to.
Downloading unverified content from (non-encrypted) external special remotes is
prevented, because they could follow http redirects to web servers on localhost or
on a private network, or in some cases to a file:/// url.
If you decide to bypass this security check, the best thing to do is to only set it
temporarily while running the command that gets the file. The value to set the
config to is "ACKTHPPT". For example:
git -c annex.security.allow-unverified-downloads=ACKTHPPT annex get myfile
It would be a good idea to check that it downloaded the file you expected, too.
remote.<name>.annex-security-allow-unverified-downloads
Per-remote configuration of annex.security.allow-unverified-downloads.
CONFIGURATION OF ASSISTANT
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.
Note that this only delays adding files created while the daemon is running.
Changes made when it is not running will be added immediately the next time it is
started up.
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, git-annex assist, and git-annex
sync from automatically committing changes to files in the repository.
To configure the behavior in all clones of the repository, this can be set in git-
annex-config(1).
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.
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. (See git-annex-backends(1) for information about
available backends.) 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, which is used to configure which files are large
enough to be added to the annex. Since attributes cannot contain spaces, it is difficult
to use for more complex annex.largefiles settings. Setting annex.largefiles in git-
annex-config(1) is an easier way to configure it across all clones of the repository. See
git-annex-matching-expression(1) for details on the syntax.
The numcopies and mincopies settings can also be configured on a per-file-type basis via
the annex.numcopies and annex.mincopies attributes in .gitattributes files. This overrides
other 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
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 and git annex mincopies commands are useful to
configure a global default.
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.
EXIT STATUS
git-annex itself will exit 0 on success and 1 on failure, unless the --size-limit or
--time-limit option is hit, in which case it exits 101.
A few git-annex subcommands have other exit statuses used to indicate specific problems,
which are documented on their individual man pages.
ENVIRONMENT
These environment variables are used by git-annex when set:
GIT_WORK_TREE, GIT_DIR
Handled the same as they are by git, see git(1)
GIT_SSH, GIT_SSH_COMMAND
Handled similarly to the same as described in git(1). The one difference is that
git-annex will sometimes pass an additional "-n" parameter to these, as the first
parameter, to prevent ssh from reading from stdin. Since that can break existing
uses of these environment variables that don't expect the extra parameter, you will
need to set GIT_ANNEX_USE_GIT_SSH=1 to make git-annex support these.
Note that setting either of these environment variables prevents git-annex from
automatically enabling ssh connection caching (see annex.sshcaching), so it will
slow down some operations with remotes over ssh. It's up to you to enable ssh
connection caching if you need it; see ssh's documentation.
Also, annex.ssh-options and remote.<name>.annex-ssh-options won't have any effect
when these envionment variables are set.
Usually it's better to configure any desired options through your ~/.ssh/config
file, or by setting annex.ssh-options.
GIT_ANNEX_VECTOR_CLOCK
Normally git-annex timestamps lines in the log files committed to the git-annex
branch. Setting this environment variable to a number will make git-annex use that
(or a larger number) rather than the current number of seconds since the UNIX
epoch. Note that decimal seconds are supported.
This is only provided for advanced users who either have a better way to tell which
commit is current than the local clock, or who need to avoid embedding timestamps
for policy reasons.
Some special remotes use additional environment variables
for authentication etc. For example, AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and GIT_ANNEX_P2P_AUTHTOKEN.
See special remote documentation.
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, <https://git-
annex.branchable.com/>
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 <id@joeyh.name>
<https://git-annex.branchable.com/>
git-annex(1)