I want to import from an SD card to a mounted annex:
user@laptop:/media/.../annex/Pictures/(master)$ git annex import /media/.../sdcard/Download/QuickTransfer
[...]
git-annex: /media/.../sdcard/Download/QuickTransfer/20150428_192110.jpg: rename: unsupported operation (Invalid cross-device link)
[...]
Why is it trying to make a cross-device link? As long as it can read the files, it should be OK, no?
I do this all the time (most recently 12 hours ago), and have never seen this problem. At least not in recent memory.
You didn't say which version of git-annex you are using. Perhaps you need to upgrade from some old and broken version...
Looking at the current code, it first tries a rename, and if that fails for a reason such as the two locations being on different devices, it falls back to using
cp.