Hey Joey,
If I understand correctly, the default content expression (when it's empty, e.g. after a git annex init or git clone ...;git annex sync) is currently apparently anything. This means that a git annex sync --content (or just git annex sync if git config --set annex.synccontent true) will fetch all files.
It would be very handy if there was something like:
git annex config --set annex.defaultwanted ...
git annex config --set annex.defaultgroup ...
git annex config --set annex.defaultgroupwanted ...
git annex config --set annex.defaultrequired ...
# and the corresponding git variant for user-overriding
git config [--global|--system] annex.defaultwanted ...
git config [--global|--system] annex.defaultgroup ...
git config [--global|--system] annex.defaultgroupwanted ...
git config [--global|--system] annex.defaultrequired ...
These defaults would be applied when git annex initializes a repository (i.e. gives it a annex.uuid, e.g. git annex init or git annex sync of a fresh clone of a repo with annex).
I like my annexed/datalad repos (mostly research data next to analysis code for collaboration) to have annex.synccontent = true so people can just do (datalad save/git annex add) git annex sync and be sure afterwards everything is in order and safe. However as the default wanted is anything (apparently), they also get all files they probably don't want if they don't to git annex wanted . present manually (and manual boilerplate config and extra steps is always something that's nice to automate). Something like git annex config --set annex.defaultwanted present would solve this.
Thanks again very much for git-annex, I love it! 💛
Yann
This came up again at the distribits meeting.
DataLad itself is designed to work like
git annex wanted . present(i.e. content is supposed to be fetched manually. It is assumed that the user does not generally want all content of a DataLad dataset / git annex repo). DataLad could itself rungit annex wanted . presentas part of its setup (talked about that with @mih), but I still think a setting in the git-annex branch that auto-sets the above settings in fresh clones (even when using plain git annex, not DataLad), is useful. It enhances the user experience of sparse checkouts (agit annex assistin a freshly cloned annex repo can then be configured to only pull specific or no files).I also discussed it with people in the context of handling confidential patient data that should not necessarily be copied everywhere. The default of just wanting all worktree content increases the delicacy of the matter a bit. Were there a way to have fresh clones (or even freshly created remotes that were not yet given a preferred content manually) have a preconfigured default wanted content, it would reduce the possibility of confidential data accidentally being copied all over the place.
I agree, after discussions at distribits it's clear there is use for this in datalad, and in git-annex generally.