127 lines
5.8 KiB
Markdown
127 lines
5.8 KiB
Markdown
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# Git LFS
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Managing large files such as audio, video and graphics files has always been one of the shortcomings of Git.
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The general recommendation is to not have Git repositories larger than 1GB to preserve performance.
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GitLab already supports [managing large files with git annex](http://doc.gitlab.com/ee/workflow/git_annex.html) (EE only), however in certain
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environments it is not always convenient to use different commands to differentiate between the large files and regular ones.
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Git LFS makes this simpler for the end user by removing the requirement to learn new commands.
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## How it works
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Git LFS client talks with the GitLab server over HTTPS. It uses HTTP Basic Authentication to authorize client requests.
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Once the request is authorized, Git LFS client receives instructions from where to fetch or where to push the large file.
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## GitLab server configuration
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Documentation for GitLab instance administrators is under [LFS administration doc](lfs_administration.md).
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## Requirements
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* Git LFS is supported in GitLab starting with version 8.2
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* [Git LFS client](https://git-lfs.github.com) version 1.0.1 and up
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## Known limitations
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* Git LFS v1 original API is not supported since it was deprecated early in LFS development
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* When SSH is set as a remote, Git LFS objects still go through HTTPS
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* Any Git LFS request will ask for HTTPS credentials to be provided so good Git credentials store is recommended
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* Git LFS always assumes HTTPS so if you have GitLab server on HTTP you will have to add the URL to Git config manually (see #troubleshooting)
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## Using Git LFS
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Lets take a look at the workflow when you need to check large files into your Git repository with Git LFS:
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For example, if you want to upload a very large file and check it into your Git repository:
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```bash
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git clone git@gitlab.example.com:group/project.git
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git lfs init # initialize the Git LFS project project
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git lfs track "*.iso" # select the file extensions that you want to treat as large files
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```
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Once a certain file extension is marked for tracking as a LFS object you can use Git as usual without having to redo the command to track a file with the same extension:
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```bash
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cp ~/tmp/debian.iso ./ # copy a large file into the current directory
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git add . # add the large file to the project
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git commit -am "Added Debian iso" # commit the file meta data
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git push origin master # sync the git repo and large file to the GitLab server
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```
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Cloning the repository works the same as before. Git automatically detects the LFS-tracked files and clones them via HTTP. If you performed the git clone command with a SSH URL, you have to enter your GitLab credentials for HTTP authentication.
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```bash
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git clone git@gitlab.example.com:group/project.git
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```
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If you already cloned the repository and you want to get the latest LFS object that are on the remote repository, eg. from branch `master`:
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```bash
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git lfs fetch master
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```
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## Troubleshooting
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### error: Repository or object not found
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There are a couple of reasons why this error can occur:
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* You don't have permissions to access certain LFS object
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Check if you have permissions to push to the project or fetch from the project.
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* Project is not allowed to access the LFS object
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LFS object you are trying to push to the project or fetch from the project is not available to the project anymore.
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Probably the object was removed from the server.
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* Local git repository is using deprecated LFS API
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### Invalid status for <url> : 501
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Git LFS will log the failures into a log file.
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To view this log file, while in project directory:
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```bash
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git lfs logs last
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```
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If the status `error 501` is shown, it is because:
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* Git LFS support is not enabled on the GitLab server. Check with your GitLab administrator why Git LFS is not enabled on the server. See [LFS administration documentation](lfs_administration.md) for instructions on how to enable LFS support.
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* Git LFS client version is not supported by GitLab server. Check your Git LFS version with `git lfs version`. Check the Git config of the project for traces of deprecated API with `git lfs -l`. If `batch = false` is set in the config, remove the line and try to update your Git LFS client. Only version 1.0.1 and newer are supported.
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### getsockopt: connection refused
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If you push a LFS object to a project and you receive an error similar to: `Post <URL>/info/lfs/objects/batch: dial tcp IP: getsockopt: connection refused`,
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the LFS client is trying to reach GitLab through HTTPS. However, your GitLab instance is being served on HTTP.
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This behaviour is caused by Git LFS using HTTPS connections by default when a `lfsurl` is not set in the Git config.
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To prevent this from happening, set the lfs url in project Git config:
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```bash
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git config --add lfs.url "http://gitlab.example.com/group/project.git/info/lfs/objects/batch"
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```
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### Credentials are always required when pushing an object
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Given that Git LFS uses HTTP Basic Authentication to authenticate the user pushing the LFS object on every push for every object, user HTTPS credentials are required.
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By default, Git has support for remembering the credentials for each repository you use. This is described in [Git credentials man pages](https://git-scm.com/docs/gitcredentials).
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For example, you can tell Git to remember the password for a period of time in which you expect to push the objects:
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```bash
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git config --global credential.helper 'cache --timeout=3600'
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```
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This will remember the credentials for an hour after which Git operations will require re-authentication.
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If you are using OS X you can use `osxkeychain` to store and encrypt your credentials. For Windows, `wincred` is available.
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More details about various methods of storing the user credentials can be found on [Git Credential Storage documentation](https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Tools-Credential-Storage).
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