-[Git Annex to Git LFS migration guide](lfs/migrate_from_git_annex_to_git_lfs.md)
-[Towards a production quality open source Git LFS server](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2015/08/13/towards-a-production-quality-open-source-git-lfs-server/)
# Migration guide from Git Annex to Git LFS **(FREE)**
This document was moved to [another location](index.md).
WARNING:
Git Annex support [has been removed](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/1648) in GitLab Enterprise
Edition 9.0 (2017/03/22).
Both [Git Annex](http://git-annex.branchable.com/) and [Git LFS](https://git-lfs.github.com/) are tools to manage large files in Git.
## History
Git Annex [was introduced in GitLab Enterprise Edition 7.8](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2015/02/17/gitlab-annex-solves-the-problem-of-versioning-large-binaries-with-git/), at a time
where Git LFS didn't yet exist. A few months later, GitLab brought support for
Git LFS in [GitLab 8.2](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2015/11/23/announcing-git-lfs-support-in-gitlab/) and is available for both Community and
Enterprise editions.
## Differences between Git Annex and Git LFS
Some items below are general differences between the two protocols and some are
ones that GitLab developed.
- Git Annex works only through SSH, whereas Git LFS works both with SSH and HTTPS
(SSH support was added in GitLab 8.12).
- Annex files are stored in a sub-directory of the normal repositories, whereas
LFS files are stored outside of the repositories in a place you can define.
- Git Annex requires a more complex setup, but has much more options than Git
LFS. You can compare the commands each one offers by running `man git-annex`
and `man git-lfs`.
- Annex files cannot be browsed directly in the GitLab interface, whereas LFS
files can.
## Migration steps
Git Annex files are stored in a sub-directory of the normal repositories
(`.git/annex/objects`) and LFS files are stored outside of the repositories.
The two aren't compatible as they are using a different scheme. Therefore, the
migration has to be done manually per repository.
There are basically two steps you need to take in order to migrate from Git
Annex to Git LFS.
### TL; DR
If you know what you are doing and want to skip the reading, this is what you
need to do (we assume you have [git-annex enabled](../../../administration/git_annex.md#using-gitlab-git-annex) in your
repository and that you have made backups in case something goes wrong).
Fire up a terminal, navigate to your Git repository and:
1. Disable `git-annex`:
```shell
git annex sync--content
git annex direct
git annex uninit
git annex indirect
```
1. Enable `git-lfs`:
```shell
git lfs install
git lfs track <files>
git add .
git commit -m"commit message"
git push
```
### Disabling Git Annex in your repository
Before changing anything, make sure you have a backup of your repository first.
There are a couple of ways to do that, but you can clone it to another
local path and maybe push it to GitLab if you want a remote backup as well.
A guide on
[how to back up a **git-annex** repository to an external hard drive](https://www.thomas-krenn.com/en/wiki/Git-annex_Repository_on_an_External_Hard_Drive) is also available.
Because Annex files are stored as objects with symlinks and cannot be directly
modified, we need to first remove those symlinks.
NOTE:
Make sure the you read about the [`direct` mode](https://git-annex.branchable.com/direct_mode/) as it contains
information that may fit in your use case. The `annex direct` command is
deprecated in Git Annex version 6, so you may need to upgrade your repository
if the server also has Git Annex 6 installed. Read more in the
If there are still some Annex objects inside your repository (`.git/annex/`)
or references inside `.git/config`, run `annex uninit` again:
```shell
git annex uninit
```
## Further Reading
- (Blog Post) [Getting Started with Git FLS](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2017/01/30/getting-started-with-git-lfs-tutorial/)
- (Blog Post) [Announcing LFS Support in GitLab](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2015/11/23/announcing-git-lfs-support-in-gitlab/)
- (Blog Post) [GitLab Annex Solves the Problem of Versioning Large Binaries with Git](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2015/02/17/gitlab-annex-solves-the-problem-of-versioning-large-binaries-with-git/)
- Alternative method to [migrate an existing repository to Git LFS](https://github.com/git-lfs/git-lfs/wiki/Tutorial#migrating-existing-repository-data-to-lfs)