git-annex(1)
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.
adjust Switches a repository to use an adjusted branch, which can
automatically unlock all files, etc.
See git-annex-adjust(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.
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.
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
Used to configure which files are large enough to be added to
the annex. Default: All files.
Overrides any annex.largefiles attributes in .gitattributes
files.
See <https://git-annex.branchable.com/tips/largefiles> for
details.
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
Set to true to make commands like git-annex add that add files
to the repository add them in unlocked form. The default is to
add files in locked form. This only has effect in version 6
repositories.
When a repository has core.symlinks set to false, it implicitly
sets annex.addunlocked to true.
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 when a modification
is made to a file, you will lose the local (and possibly only)
copy of the old version. So, enable 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 annex.thin is not honored when git updates an annexed
file in the working tree. So when git checkout or git merge
updates the working tree, a second copy of annexed files will
result. You can run git-annex fix to fix up the hard links after
running such git commands.
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.<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. The cost-command can be any shell command line.
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 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.<name>.annex-sync
If set to false, prevents git-annex sync (and the git-annex
assistant) from syncing with this remote.
remote.<name>.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.<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.
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-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-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
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.
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.<name>.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>.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>.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>.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>.s3
Used to identify Amazon S3 special remotes. Normally this is
automatically set up by git annex initremote.
remote.<name>.glacier
Used to identify Amazon Glacier special remotes. Normally this
is automatically set up by git annex initremote.
remote.<name>.webdav
Used to identify webdav special remotes. Normally this is
automatically set up by git annex initremote.
remote.<name>.tahoe
Used to identify tahoe special remotes. Points to the
configuration directory for tahoe.
remote.<name>.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.<name>.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>.hooktype, remote.<name>.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 and should
never be set in global git configuration. For details, see
<https://git-annex.branchable.com/tuning/>.
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; which is used to configure which
files are large enough to be added to the annex. See <https://git-
annex.branchable.com/tips/largefiles> for details.
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.
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, <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 <[email protected]> <https://git-annex.branchable.com/> git-annex(1)
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