I have just started using git annex, and I cloned the annex onto an external usb formatted as exFAT. I am using Mac OS X.

The clone went fine, but when running git annex init the following happened

  Detected a filesystem without fifo support.

  Disabling ssh connection caching.

  Detected a crippled filesystem.

  Disabling core.symlinks.
(merging origin/git-annex into git-annex...)
(recording state in git...)

  Enabling direct mode.

then git annex appears to get stuck according to top:

PID    COMMAND      %CPU TIME     #TH   #WQ  #PORT MEM    PURG   CMPRS  PGRP  PPID  STATE    BOOSTS  

86934  git-annex    0.0  01:07.09 4     0    13    4152K  0B     5684K  86933 86933 stuck    *0[1]

I am running git-annex 6.20170101, so direct mode should no longer be used. Is that correct? If so what should I do to figure out what's going on?

The most relevant related thread I could find was this one Bare repo on USB ... which suggests exFAT may not work well on Linux. However, I mainly use this USB on my Macbook to supplement the SSD. Another possibly relevant thread is this one Android table ... only exFAT....

I appreciate any assitance.