## version 3.20121012 This is a major upgrade of the git-annex assistant, which is still in beta. In general, anything you can configure with the assistant's web app will work. Some examples of use cases supported by this release include: * [[Sharing repositories with friends|share_with_a_friend_walkthrough]] contacted through a Jabber server (such as Google Talk). * Setting up cloud repositories, that are used as backups, archives, or transfer points between repositories that cannot directly contact one-another. * [[Pairing|pairing_walkthrough]] two computers that are on the same local network (or VPN) and automatically keeping the files in the annex in sync as changes are made to them. * Cloning your repository to removable drives, USB keys, etc. The assistant will notice when the drive is mounted and keep it in sync. Such a drive can be stored as an offline backup, or transported between computers to keep them in sync. The following upgrade notes apply if you're upgrading from a previous version: * For best results, edit the configuration of repositories you set up with older versions, and place them in a repository group. This lets the assistant know how you want to use the repository; for backup, archival, as a transfer point for clients, etc. Go to Configuration -> Manage Repositories, and click in the "configure" link to edit a repository's configuration. * If you set up a cloud repository with an older version, and have multiple clients using it, you are recommended to configure an Jabber account, so that clients can use it to communicate when sending data to the cloud repository. Configure Jabber by opening the webapp, and going to Configuration -> Configure jabber account * When setting up local pairing, the assistant did not limit the paired computer to accessing a single git repository. This new version does, by setting GIT_ANNEX_SHELL_DIRECTORY in `~/.ssh/authorized_keys`. The following are known limitations of this release of the git-annex assistant: * On Mac OSX and BSD operating systems, the assistant uses kqueue to watch files. Kqueue has to open every directory it watches, so too many directories will run it out of the max number of open files (typically 1024), and fail. See [[bugs/Issue_on_OSX_with_some_system_limits]] for a workaround. ## version 3.20121009 This is a maintenance release of the git-annex assistant, which is still in beta. In general, anything you can configure with the assistant's web app will work. Some examples of use cases supported by this release include: * [[Pairing|pairing_walkthrough]] two computers that are on the same local network (or VPN) and automatically keeping the files in the annex in sync as changes are made to them. * Cloning your repository to removable drives, USB keys, etc. The assistant will notice when the drive is mounted and keep it in sync. Such a drive can be stored as an offline backup, or transported between computers to keep them in sync. * Cloning your repository to a remote server, running ssh, and uploading changes made to your files to the server. There is special support for using the rsync.net cloud provider this way, or any shell account on a typical unix server, such as a Linode VPS can be used. The following are known limitations of this release of the git-annex assistant: * On Mac OSX and BSD operating systems, the assistant uses kqueue to watch files. Kqueue has to open every directory it watches, so too many directories will run it out of the max number of open files (typically 1024), and fail. See [[bugs/Issue_on_OSX_with_some_system_limits]] for a workaround. * In order to ensure that all multiple repositories are kept in sync, each computer with a repository must be running the git-annex assistant. * The assistant does not yet always manage to keep repositories in sync when some are hidden from others behind firewalls. ## version 3.20120924 This is the first beta release of the git-annex assistant. In general, anything you can configure with the assistant's web app will work. Some examples of use cases supported by this release include: * [[Pairing|pairing_walkthrough]] two computers that are on the same local network (or VPN) and automatically keeping the files in the annex in sync as changes are made to them. * Cloning your repository to removable drives, USB keys, etc. The assistant will notice when the drive is mounted and keep it in sync. Such a drive can be stored as an offline backup, or transported between computers to keep them in sync. * Cloning your repository to a remote server, running ssh, and uploading changes made to your files to the server. There is special support for using the rsync.net cloud provider this way, or any shell account on a typical unix server, such as a Linode VPS can be used. The following are known limitations of this release of the git-annex assistant: * On Mac OSX and BSD operating systems, the assistant uses kqueue to watch files. Kqueue has to open every directory it watches, so too many directories will run it out of the max number of open files (typically 1024), and fail. See [[bugs/Issue_on_OSX_with_some_system_limits]] for a workaround. * In order to ensure that all multiple repositories are kept in sync, each computer with a repository must be running the git-annex assistant. * The assistant does not yet always manage to keep repositories in sync when some are hidden from others behind firewalls. * If a file is checked into git as a normal file and gets modified (or merged, etc), it will be converted into an annexed file. So you should not mix use of the assistant with normal git files in the same repository yet. * If you `git annex unlock` a file, it will immediately be re-locked. See [[bugs/watcher_commits_unlocked_files]].