136 lines
No EOL
5.7 KiB
Markdown
136 lines
No EOL
5.7 KiB
Markdown
# Git LFS
|
|
|
|
Managing large files such as audio, video and graphics files has always been one of the shortcomings of Git.
|
|
The general recommendation is to not have Git repositories larger than 1GB to preserve performance.
|
|
|
|
GitLab already supports [managing large files with git annex](http://doc.gitlab.com/ee/workflow/git_annex.html) (EE only), however in certain
|
|
environments it is not always convenient to use different commands to differentiate between the large files and regular ones.
|
|
|
|
Git LFS makes this simpler for the end user by removing the requirement to learn new commands.
|
|
<!-- more -->
|
|
|
|
## How it works
|
|
|
|
Git LFS client talks with the GitLab server over HTTPS. It uses HTTP Basic Authentication to authorize client requests.
|
|
Once the request is authorized, Git LFS client receives instructions from where to fetch or where to push the large file.
|
|
|
|
## Requirements
|
|
|
|
* Git LFS is supported in GitLab starting with version 8.2
|
|
* Git LFS [client](https://git-lfs.github.com) version 0.6.0 and up
|
|
|
|
## GitLab and Git LFS
|
|
|
|
### Configuration
|
|
|
|
Git LFS objects can be large in size. By default, they are stored on the server GitLab is installed on.
|
|
|
|
There are two configuration options to help GitLab server administrators:
|
|
|
|
* Enabling/disabling Git LFS support
|
|
* Changing the location of LFS object storage
|
|
|
|
#### Omnibus packages
|
|
|
|
In `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`:
|
|
|
|
```ruby
|
|
gitlab_rails['lfs_enabled'] = false
|
|
gitlab_rails['lfs_storage_path'] = "/mnt/storage/lfs-objects"
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
#### Installations from source
|
|
|
|
In `config/gitlab.yml`:
|
|
|
|
```yaml
|
|
lfs:
|
|
enabled: false
|
|
storage_path: /mnt/storage/lfs-objects
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
## Known limitations
|
|
|
|
* Git LFS v1 original API is not supported since it was deprecated early in LFS development, starting with Git LFS version 0.6.0
|
|
* When SSH is set as a remote, Git LFS objects still go through HTTPS
|
|
* Any Git LFS request will ask for HTTPS credentials to be provided so good Git credentials store is recommended
|
|
* Currently, storing GitLab Git LFS objects on a non-local storage (like S3 buckets) is not supported
|
|
* 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-tips)
|
|
|
|
## Using Git LFS
|
|
|
|
Lets take a look at the workflow when you need to check large files into your Git repository with Git LFS:
|
|
For example, if you want to upload a very large file and check it into your Git repository:
|
|
|
|
```bash
|
|
git clone git@gitlab.example.com:group/project.git
|
|
git lfs init # initialize the Git LFS project project
|
|
git lfs track "*.iso" # select the file extensions that you want to treat as large files
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
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:
|
|
|
|
```bash
|
|
cp ~/tmp/debian.iso ./ # copy a large file into the current directory
|
|
git add . # add the large file to the project
|
|
git commit -am "Added Debian iso" # commit the file meta data
|
|
git push origin master # sync the git repo and large file to the GitLab server
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Downloading a single large file is also very simple:
|
|
|
|
```bash
|
|
git clone git@gitlab.example.com:group/project.git
|
|
git lfs fetch debian.iso # download the large file
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
|
|
## Troubleshooting
|
|
|
|
### error: Repository or object not found
|
|
|
|
There are a couple of reasons why this error can occur:
|
|
|
|
* Wrong version of LFS client used:
|
|
|
|
Check the version of Git LFS on the client machine with `git lfs version`. Only version 0.6.0 and newer are supported.
|
|
|
|
* Project is using deprecated LFS API
|
|
|
|
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 using Git LFS client newer than 0.6.0.
|
|
|
|
### Invalid status for <url> : 501
|
|
|
|
When attempting to push a LFS object to a GitLab server that doesn't have Git LFS support enabled, server will return status `error 501`. Check with your GitLab administrator why Git LFS is not enabled on the server. See [Configuration section](#configuration) for instructions on how to enable LFS support.
|
|
|
|
### getsockopt: connection refused
|
|
|
|
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`,
|
|
the LFS client is trying to reach GitLab through HTTPS. However, your GitLab instance is being served on HTTP.
|
|
|
|
This behaviour is caused by Git LFS using HTTPS connections by default when a `lfsurl` is not set in the Git config.
|
|
|
|
To prevent this from happening, set the lfs url in project Git config:
|
|
|
|
```bash
|
|
|
|
git config --add lfs.url "http://gitlab.example.com/group/project.git/info/lfs/objects/batch"
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
### Credentials are always required when pushing an object
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
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).
|
|
|
|
For example, you can tell Git to remember the password for a period of time in which you expect to push the objects:
|
|
|
|
```bash
|
|
git config --global credential.helper 'cache --timeout=3600'
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
This will remember the credentials for an hour after which Git operations will require re-authentication.
|
|
|
|
If you are using OS X you can use `osxkeychain` to store and encrypt your credentials. For Windows, `wincred` is available.
|
|
|
|
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) |