Ubuntu Manpage: git-annex-preferred-content - which files are wanted in a repository

Provided by: git-annex_10.20240129-1build1_amd64

NAME

       git-annex-preferred-content - which files are wanted in a repository

DESCRIPTION

       Each  repository  has  a  preferred content setting, which specifies content that the repository wants to
       have present. These settings can be configured using git annex vicfg or git annex wanted.  They are  used
       by the --auto option, by git annex sync --content, and by the git-annex assistant.

       While  preferred  content expresses a preference, it can be overridden by simply using git annex drop. On
       the other hand, required content settings are enforced; git annex drop will refuse  to  drop  a  file  if
       doing  so  would violate its required content settings. A repository's required content can be configured
       using git annex vicfg or git annex required.

SYNTAX

       Preferred content expressions use a similar syntax  to  the  git-annex-matching-options(1),  without  the
       dashes.  For example:

        exclude=archive/* and (include=*.mp3 or smallerthan=1mb)

       The  idea  is  that  you  write  an  expression  that  files  are matched against. If a file matches, the
       repository wants to store its content. If it doesn't, the repository wants to drop its content (if  there
       are enough copies elsewhere to allow removing it).

EXPRESSIONS

include=glob / exclude=glob

Match files to include, or exclude.

While the command-line options --include=glob and --exclude=glob match files relative to the
current directory, preferred content expressions match files relative to the top of the git
repository.

A glob is something like foo.* or b?r. Globs can also contain character classes, like foo[Bb]ar,
as well as additional POSIX character classes like [[:space:]]. Which is useful, since a glob in a
preferred content expression cannot contain spaces. See the glob(7) man page for more about globs.

For example, suppose you put files into archive directories when you're done with them. Then you
could configure your laptop to prefer to not retain those files, like this: exclude=*/archive/*

When a subdirectory is being exported or imported to a special remote (see git-annex-export(1))
and git-annex-import(1), these match relative to the top of the subdirectory.

Note that, when a command is run with the --all option, or in a bare repository, there is no
filename associated with an annexed object, and so "include=" and "exclude=" will not match.

copies=number
Matches only files that git-annex believes to have the specified number of copies, or more. Note
that it does not check remotes to verify that the copies still exist.

To decide if content should be dropped, git-annex evaluates the preferred content expression under
the assumption that the content has *already* been dropped. If the content would not be wanted
then, the drop can be done. So, for example, copies=2 in a preferred content expression lets
content be dropped only when there are currently 3 copies of it, including the repo it's being
dropped from. This is different than running git annex drop --copies=2, which will drop files that
currently have 2 copies.

copies=trustlevel:number
Matches only files that git-annex believes have the specified number copies, on remotes with the
specified trust level. For example, copies=trusted:2

To match any trust level at or higher than a given level, use trustlevel+. For example,
copies=semitrusted+:2

copies=groupname:number
Matches only files that git-annex believes have the specified number of copies, on remotes in the
specified group. For example, copies=archive:2

Preferred content expressions have no equivalent to the --in option, but groups can accomplish
similar things. You can add repositories to groups, and match against the groups in a preferred
content expression. So rather than --in=usbdrive, put all the USB drives into a "transfer" group,
and use copies=transfer:1

lackingcopies=number
Matches only files that git-annex believes need the specified number or more additional copies to
be made in order to satisfy their numcopies settings.

approxlackingcopies=number
Like lackingcopies, but does not look at .gitattributes annex.numcopies settings. This makes it
significantly faster.

inbackend=backendname
Matches only files whose content is stored using the specified key-value backend.

See git-annex-backends(1) for information about available backends.

securehash
Matches only files whose content is hashed using a cryptographically secure function.

inallgroup=groupname
Matches only files that git-annex believes are present in all repositories in the specified group.

onlyingroup=groupname
Matches files that git-annex believes are present in at least one repository that is in the
specified group, and are not present in any repositories that are not in the specified group.

smallerthan=size / largerthan=size
Matches only files whose content is smaller than, or larger than the specified size.

The size can be specified with any commonly used units, for example, "0.5 gb" or "100 KiloBytes"

metadata=field=glob
Matches only files that have a metadata field attached with a value that matches the glob. The
values of metadata fields are matched case insensitively.

To match a tag "done", use metadata=tag=done

To match author metadata, use metadata=author=*Smith

metadata=field<number / metadata=field>number

metadata=field<=number / metadata=field>=number
Matches only files that have a metadata field attached with a value that is a number and is less
than or greater than the specified number.

To match PDFs with between 100 and 200 pages (assuming something has set that metadata), use
metadata=pagecount>=100 and metadata=pagecount<=200

present
Makes content be wanted if it's present, but not otherwise.

This leaves it up to you to use git-annex manually to move content around. You can use this to
avoid preferred content settings from affecting a subdirectory. For example: auto/* or
(include=ad-hoc/* and present)

Note that not present is a very bad thing to put in a preferred content expression. It'll make it
want to get content that's not present, and drop content that is present! Don't go there..

inpreferreddir
Makes content be preferred if it's in a directory (located anywhere in the tree) with a particular
name.

The name of the directory can be configured using git annex enableremote $remote
preferreddir=$dirname

(If no directory name is configured, it uses "public" by default.)

Note that, when a command is run with the --all option, or in a bare repository, there is no
filename associated with an annexed object, and so "inpreferreddir" will not match.

standard
git-annex comes with some built-in preferred content expressions, that can be used with
repositories that are in some standard groups such as "client" and "transfer".

When a repository is in exactly one such group, you can use the "standard" keyword in its
preferred content expression, to match whatever content the group's expression matches.

Most often, the whole preferred content expression is simply "standard". But, you can do more
complicated things, for example: standard or include=otherdir/*

groupwanted
The "groupwanted" keyword can be used to refer to a preferred content expression that is
associated with a group, as long as there is exactly one such expression amoung the groups a
repository is in. This is like the "standard" keyword, but you can configure the preferred content
expressions using git annex groupwanted.

When writing a groupwanted preferred content expression, you can use all the keywords documented
here, including "standard". (But not "groupwanted".)

For example, to make a variant of the standard client preferred content expression that does not
want files in the "out" directory, you could run: git annex groupwanted client "standard and
exclude=out/*"

Then repositories that are in the client group and have their preferred content expression set to
"groupwanted" will use that, while other client repositories that have their preferred content
expression set to "standard" will use the standard expression.

Or, you could make a new group, with your own custom preferred content expression tuned for your
needs, and every repository you put in this group and make its preferred content be "groupwanted"
will use it.

For example, the archive group only wants to archive 1 copy of each file, spread among every
repository in the group. Here's how to configure a group named redundantarchive, that instead
wants to contain 3 copies of each file:

git annex groupwanted redundantarchive "not (copies=redundantarchive:3)"
for repo in foo bar baz; do
git annex group $repo redundantarchive
git annex wanted $repo groupwanted
done

unused Matches only keys that git annex unused has determined to be unused.

This is related the the --unused option. However, putting unused in a preferred content
expression doesn't make git-annex consider those unused keys. So when git-annex is only checking
preferred content expressions against files in the repository (which are obviously used), unused
in a preferred content expression won't match anything.

So when is unused useful in a preferred content expression?

Using git annex sync --content --all will operate on all files, including unused ones, and take
unused in preferred content expressions into account.

The git-annex assistant periodically scans for unused files, and moves them to some repository
whose preferred content expression says it wants them. (Or, if annex.expireunused is set, it may
just delete them.)

anything
Always matches.

nothing
Never matches. (Same as "not anything")

not expression
Inverts what the expression matches. For example, not include=archive/* is the same as
exclude=archive/*

and / or / ( expression )
These can be used to build up more complicated expressions.

TESTING

       To check at the command line which files are matched by a repository's preferred  content  settings,  you
       can use the --want-get and --want-drop options.

       For  example,  git  annex  find --want-get --not --in . will find all the files that git annex get --auto
       will want to get, and git annex find --want-drop --in . will find all  the  files  that  git  annex  drop
       --auto will want to drop.

       The  --explain  option  can  be  used to understand why a complex preferred content expression matches or
       fails to match. The expression will be displayed, with each term followed by  "[TRUE]"  or  "[FALSE]"  to
       indicate  the  value.  Irrelevant terms will be ommitted from the explanation, for example "exclude=* and
       copies=1" will be displayed as "exclude=*[FALSE]"

AUTHOR