git-annex - documentation clarification - I've had data loss
Not sure you'd call this a docs bug; more like 90% my fault. Just posting in case it might help someone avoid the same mistake. I used git annex on an external usb disk of mine. When I read the docs, I took the following: When you add a file to the annex and commit it, only a symlink to the annexed content is committed (http://git-annex.branchable.com/walkthrough/#index3h2) to mean that the file are are left intact, in-situ and what was stored is just metadata about the file. (yep, I didn't even read the end of the sentence apparently; this was a while ago) Anyway, time passes, and I decide to move all this content over to a different disk. I just used drag and drop from a gui (not sure whether windows or linux) and of course the select doesn't pick up the .git directory. Next I reformated the disk, and get a funny feeling that the copy went a little too fast ... Can I suggest that the following wording be changed from this: When you add a file to the annex and commit it, only a symlink to the annexed content is committed. The content itself is stored in git-annex's backend. to this: When you add a file to the annex, the content is moved to git-annex's backend (.git/annex/..) and replaced with a symlink. The commit only commits the symlink. The http://git-annex.branchable.com/how_it_works/ page might be improved the same way. It currently says The contents of large files are not stored in git, only the names of the files and some other metadata remain there. which is strictly true but might lead others to make the same mistaken assumption that I did. Regards, Matt ___ vcs-home mailing list vcs-home@lists.madduck.net http://lists.madduck.net/listinfo/vcs-home
Re: git-annex - documentation clarification - I've had data loss
Matthew Hannigan wrote: Anyway, time passes, and I decide to move all this content over to a different disk. I just used drag and drop from a gui (not sure whether windows or linux) and of course the select doesn't pick up the .git directory. Next I reformated the disk, and get a funny feeling that the copy went a little too fast ... Can I suggest that the following wording be changed from this: When you add a file to the annex and commit it, only a symlink to the annexed content is committed. The content itself is stored in git-annex's backend. to this: When you add a file to the annex, the content is moved to git-annex's backend (.git/annex/..) and replaced with a symlink. The commit only commits the symlink. I've made a similar wording change. Thanks for taking an unfortunate mistake and turning it constructive! The http://git-annex.branchable.com/how_it_works/ page might be improved the same way. It currently says The contents of large files are not stored in git, only the names of the files and some other metadata remain there. which is strictly true but might lead others to make the same mistaken assumption that I did. I think the next paragraph after that explains it well enough there. -- see shy jo signature.asc Description: Digital signature ___ vcs-home mailing list vcs-home@lists.madduck.net http://lists.madduck.net/listinfo/vcs-home
Re: git-annex - documentation clarification - I've had data loss
(here it is again -- to the list!) Thanks Joey. I still think it should be mentioned up front that the the 'add' actually moves the file. It's a clear difference to how git works. Interesting about direct mode; I hadn't heard of it and was about to request such a feature! Thanks Sean and Klaus too. I thought as a newb I'd hold off editing the wiki for now. Good point on the forensics. Although you can tell I'm not too upset; most of the data if not all was downloaded from net and could be downloaded again. Regards, Matt On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 3:02 AM, Joey Hess j...@kitenet.net wrote: Matthew Hannigan wrote: Anyway, time passes, and I decide to move all this content over to a different disk. I just used drag and drop from a gui (not sure whether windows or linux) and of course the select doesn't pick up the .git directory. Next I reformated the disk, and get a funny feeling that the copy went a little too fast ... Can I suggest that the following wording be changed from this: When you add a file to the annex and commit it, only a symlink to the annexed content is committed. The content itself is stored in git-annex's backend. to this: When you add a file to the annex, the content is moved to git-annex's backend (.git/annex/..) and replaced with a symlink. The commit only commits the symlink. I've made a similar wording change. Thanks for taking an unfortunate mistake and turning it constructive! The http://git-annex.branchable.com/how_it_works/ page might be improved the same way. It currently says The contents of large files are not stored in git, only the names of the files and some other metadata remain there. which is strictly true but might lead others to make the same mistaken assumption that I did. I think the next paragraph after that explains it well enough there. -- see shy jo -- m a t t h e w l i n u s h a n n i g a n ___ vcs-home mailing list vcs-home@lists.madduck.net http://lists.madduck.net/listinfo/vcs-home
