GitLFSLite

Overview

gitlfslite is a tool designed to help you manage large files in your git repository. It provides a simpler alternative to options like Git LFS or Git Annex, which can be complex or costly. This tool allows you to keep big files in sync between multiple repository clones by creating text files with metadata about the large files, which can then be tracked by git.

Motivation

Managing software projects without git is a nightmare. While git is excellent for handling text files, it struggles with large non-text files such as videos and audio files. Existing solutions like Git LFS can be expensive and have performance issues, while Git Annex is difficult to use. I wanted a simple solution where these tools are overkill. My idea was to create a text file with file information (such as sha256 sums and modification dates) for each large file, use .gitignore to manage which files are not saved in the repository, and use rsync to keep the large files in sync across multiple repo clones.

Features

• Generates metadata files with file information (sha256 sums, modification dates).
• Uses .gitignore to manage files excluded from the repository.
• Synchronizes large files using rsync.

Installation

To install gitlfslite, clone the repository and build the Go application:

git clone https://github.com/jempe/gitlfslite.git
cd gitlfslite/cmd/glflite
go install ./cmd/glflite

Usage

The glflite tool can perform several actions to manage your large files:

glflite -action [check|update|help] -file [file|folder] -force -quiet

• -action: Specify the action to perform. Possible values are check, update, and help.
• -file: Specify the file or folder to check or update.
• -force: Force the action to be performed, checking files completely to confirm if they are up to date.
• -quiet: Prints only the summary of the files.

Example

To check if your files are up to date:

glflite -action check

To update the metadata for your files:

glflite -action update

To sync the files, use the rsync command with the list of files in the rsync_list_glflite file:

rsync -v -t --files-from=rsync_list_glflite . [destination]

Managing Files

You need to modify the .gitignore file in your repository to determine which files will be managed by glflite. Add the files or patterns you want to exclude from the repository, and they will be handled by glflite instead. Only the files listed after the #GitLFSLite comment will be managed by glflite.

Example .gitignore

rsync_list_glflite_local
.DS_Store
*.swp
*.mp3

#GitLFSLite
*.mp4

Contributing

Feel free to fork the repository and submit pull requests. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

License

This project is licensed under the GPLv3 License.