Large File Storage (LFS) in GIT

Updated 1,270 Days AgoPublic

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Filesize on c4science is limited to 100MB and push size to 250MB. For special cases we support GIT LFS for large file storage outside of the git index. Only a reference to the file is stored in git tracking the changes, the file itself is stored in phabricator's storage.

Installation

• Download and install the package for your operating system: https://github.com/github/git-lfs/releases
• Profit!

Usage

• In an existing git repository, initialize lfs and start tracking files,

git lfs install
git lfs track bigfile.bin
git lfs track *.png
# etc

• Add the file to git, commit and push

git add bigfile.bin
git add myimage.png
git add .gitattributes
git commit -m "Added a bigfile using LFS"
git push origin master

• You can also track a pattern of files, so every new file matching this pattern will be added using lfs:

git lfs track *.png

• Voila!

Convert already commited files to Git LFS

• We will use BFG Repository Cleaner
• Download the JAR from https://rtyley.github.io/bfg-repo-cleaner/
• Find big files extensions

find -type f -exec ls -lh {} \; | awk '{print $5,$9}' | sort -h

• Go to your git repository directory and use bfg with the extensions you found

java -jar bfg.jar --convert-to-git-lfs '*.{wav,pdf,avi}'

• Inspect your history to see the changes and clean dirty data to complete the procedure

git reflog expire --expire=now --all && git gc --prune=now --aggressive

• Activate Dangereous Changes from the repository configuration: Actions → Manage Repository → Basics → Actions → Allow Dangerous Changes

• Push the repository back to c4science

git push --force

• Deactivate Dangerous Changes (same as before)