Imagine a rather contrived doomsday scenario: the file paths and/or basenames are important and, for some reason, the symlinks are not present (perhaps they got deleted, or aren't supported). git and git-annex no longer exist and let's assume knowledge of git internals is not useful here. All the content is there, stored under hashed file names under .git/annex/objects.

I may be missing something obvious but I think options for restoring file paths include:

• direct mode bypasses this issue; all the files are right there.
• the WORM backend perhaps carries enough information in the object file names to work with.
• file content/metadata may be sufficient to easily recreate a sensible directory structure in some cases, so no worries.

These first two options may represent compromises in various use-cases and the last may not be applicable or, if it is, practical. The object-path mapping could trivially be backed up in plain text in lieu of these. Like I said, I may be overlooking something here that makes this unnecessary or even a non-concern (actually, I've convinced myself it's not a serious concern in most of the use-cases I've considered, but crossing i's and dotting t's).

@azul, thanks for hints, but it still fails. No wonders though - this is Haskell, kids.

$ cabal install git-annex --only-dependencies
Resolving dependencies...
cabal: Could not resolve dependencies:
trying: git-annex-5.20140817
trying: git-annex-5.20140817:+webapp
trying: git-annex-5.20140817:+s3
trying: git-annex-5.20140817:+dns
trying: dns-1.4.3
trying: yesod-1.2.6.1
trying: yesod-auth-1.3.4.2
trying: http-client-0.3.7.1
trying: http-client-0.3.7.1:+network-uri
trying: hS3-0.5.8
trying: hxt-9.3.1.6
trying: hxt-9.3.1.6:-network-uri
rejecting: network-2.6.0.1, 2.6.0.0 (conflict: hxt-9.3.1.6:network-uri =>
network>=2.4 && <2.6)
rejecting: network-2.5.0.0, 2.4.2.3, 2.4.2.2, 2.4.2.1, 2.4.2.0, 2.4.1.2,
2.4.1.1, 2.4.1.0, 2.4.0.1, 2.4.0.0, 2.3.2.0, 2.3.1.1, 2.3.1.0, 2.3.0.14,
2.3.0.13, 2.3.0.12, 2.3.0.11, 2.3.0.10, 2.3.0.9, 2.3.0.8, 2.3.0.7, 2.3.0.6,
2.3.0.5, 2.3.0.4, 2.3.0.3, 2.3.0.2, 2.3.0.1, 2.3 (conflict:
http-client-0.3.7.1:network-uri => network>=2.6)
rejecting: network-2.2.3.1, 2.2.3, 2.2.1.10, 2.2.1.9, 2.2.1.8, 2.2.1.7,
2.2.1.6, 2.2.1.5, 2.2.1.4, 2.2.1.3, 2.2.1.2, 2.2.1.1, 2.2.1, 2.2.0.1, 2.2.0.0,
2.1.0.0, 2.0 (conflict: dns => network>=2.3)

Just an FYI: I tried to "cabal install --only-dependencies" with GHC 7.8 and it fails because DAV-1.0.1 is pulling in lens-3.10.3 which is not compatible with GHC 7.8 due to changes in Typeable.

I don't have enough experience with cabal to figure out why it's not trying to use a newer version of lens.

Hi,

Would it be hard to handle the wildcard character in the location view before the = sign.

git annex foo/=*

works but

git annex *=/bar

does not.

@David, the bundle contains the man page since a while.

@Michael, the best way to get a git-annex that does not use those bundled programs is probably to instead install it using homebrew.

Ævar, you can use git annex add --backend=SHA256 to temporarily override the backend.

Just a note that I poked around on github and saw a more recent cleaned up version in this fork: https://github.com/magthe/flickrannex/tree/devo

Hi, just wondering what the current status of this plugin is. The repo at TobiasTheViking looks a little odd - it has a few large commits from January with an unknown author, and the last one appears to completely remove the main script.

What's going on? does it need a fork?

Related to the question posed in http://git-annex.branchable.com/forum/switching_backends/ can git annex be told to use the existing backend for a given file?

The use case for this is that you have an existing repo that started out e.g. with SHA256, but new files are being added with SHA256E since that's the default now.

But I was doing:

git annex edit .
rsync /some/old/copy/ .
git annex add .

And was expecting it to show no changes for existing files, but it did, it would be nice if that was not the case.

Note that there has apparently been an API break, so this special remote may not work anymore. See: http://git-annex.branchable.com/forum/MegaAnnex_not_working./