The web can be used as a [[special_remote|special_remotes]] too. # git annex addurl http://example.com/video.mpeg addurl example.com_video.mpeg (downloading http://example.com/video.mpeg) ########################################################## 100.0% ok Now the file is downloaded, and has been added to the annex like any other file. So it can be renamed, copied to other repositories, and so on. Note that git-annex assumes that, if the web site does not 404, and has the right file size, the file is still present on the web, and this counts as one [[copy|copies]] of the file. So it will let you remove your last copy, trusting it can be downloaded again: # git annex drop example.com_video.mpeg drop example.com_video.mpeg (checking http://example.com/video.mpeg) ok If you don't [[trust]] the web to this degree, just let git-annex know: # git annex untrust web untrust web ok With the result that it will hang onto files: # git annex drop example.com_video.mpeg drop example.com_video.mpeg (unsafe) Could only verify the existence of 0 out of 1 necessary copies Also these untrusted repositories may contain the file: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001 -- web (Use --force to override this check, or adjust annex.numcopies.) failed