git-annex

I wrote earlier on this phlog about rsync.net, my preferred
hosting for backups. For certain things I have rsync set
up on a cron job. However, I found that sometimes I'd like
to free up space on a computer, knowing my files were safely
backed up in a few places (I also use various methods of physical,
local backups). The way I keep these local backups in sync
and on my laptop is git-annex [1].

git-annex allows me to do things like:

* Ensure my videos are backed up in more than one place,
then remove them from my computer.

* Easily retrieve items that are backed up
but not currently present locally

* List where any file is stored

The use cases that are presented on the git-annex site are
highly instructive. git-annex works not by checking your
(potentially very large) files into Git, but by checking
in symlinks and storing the actual files inside the .git
folder. I can type git annex sync (optionally with the --content flag)
inside of any git repo and it will synchronize with
all configured remotes. This means if some new music isn't
backed up on rsync.net or one of my many flash drives,
git-annex will detect that and sync it over.

If I don't want the actual file content to sync to a device
by default (say large videos on a netbook), that is configurable

Special Remotes

A special remote [2] is just a (non-git repo) place to push
files. This could be a flash drive tha needs to be read
by something that supports symlinks poorly, or maybe a cloud
drive service that supports WebDAV. git-annex can push files
there and retrieve them just as easily as a git repo on an
SD card.

git-annex and Git-LFS

I often see git-annex compared to Git-LFS and having used
both, I don't think they solve the same problem. Git-LFS
is more for "I have a massive file that I need to store
alongside other, smaller files in a Git repo without
my repo exploding in size". git-annex can be used this way,
but you're not really exercising it's full power.

If you're interested in my git-annex setup and want to know more,
hit me up on Mastodon @jboverf@mastodon.sdf.org!

[1] http://git-annex.branchable.com/
[2] http://git-annex.branchable.com/special_remotes/