In our quest to find dumb replacements for [[todo/wishlist: 'get' queue and schedule.]] (and a more complete [[git-annex-schedule]]), we have setup a cronjob that would start and stop the assistant during certain time windows, to ensure that it would not download during prime bandwidth time.

But that isn't exactly what we're looking for: we would like the assistant to continue doing its usual thing of adding and removing files, and even syncing the git branches. Just not get/move files around.

One way I thought of doing this was to disable a remote locally. [[git-annex-dead]] of course comes to mind, but that applies to all repositories, so it's not an option. If the remote was in git, i could just `git remote rm origin` and `git remote add origin` and be done with it, but this is the *web* remote, so it doesn't even show up in `git remote -v`.

But this doesn't work with [[special remotes]]. Another solution is
simply to use the `remote.name.annex-ignore` configuration documented
in the main [[git-annex]] manpage. For example, to disable the web
remote, you would use:

    git config remote.web.annex-ignore false

The result would be:

	joey@darkstar:~/tmp/a>git annex addurl --fast http://localhost
	addurl localhost ok
	(recording state in git...)
	joey@darkstar:~/tmp/a>git config remote.web.annex-ignore true
	joey@darkstar:~/tmp/a>git annex get localhost
	get localhost (not available) 
	  Try making some of these repositories available:
	  	00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001 -- web
	
	  (Note that these git remotes have annex-ignore set: web)
	failed
	git-annex: get: 1 failed
	joey@darkstar:~/tmp/a>git config remote.web.annex-ignore false
	joey@darkstar:~/tmp/a>git annex get localhost
	get localhost (from web...) 
	/home/joey/tmp/a/.g 100%[=====================>]      10  --.-KB/s   in 0s     
	ok

The assistant (probably?) needs to be restarted for those changes to
take effect.  --[[anarcat]] and [[joeyh]].