git-annex - documentation clarification - I've had data loss

[Matthew Hannigan]

(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 <joey at 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



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