xvc file recheck

Synopsis

$ xvc file recheck --help
Get files from cache by copy or *link

Usage: xvc file recheck [OPTIONS] [TARGETS]...

Arguments:
  [TARGETS]...
          Files/directories to recheck

Options:
      --recheck-method <RECHECK_METHOD>
          How to track the file contents in cache: One of copy, symlink, hardlink, reflink.
          
          Note: Reflink support requires "reflink" feature to be enabled and uses copy if the underlying file system doesn't support it.

      --no-parallel
          Don't use parallelism

      --force
          Force even if target exists

  -h, --help
          Print help (see a summary with '-h')

  -V, --version
          Print version

This command has an alias xvc file checkout if you feel more at home with Git terminology.

Examples

Rechecking is analogous to git checkout. It copies or links a cached file to the workspace.

Let's create an example directory hierarchy as a showcase.

$ xvc-test-helper create-directory-tree --directories 2 --files 3 --seed 231123
$ tree
.
├── dir-0001
│   ├── file-0001.bin
│   ├── file-0002.bin
│   └── file-0003.bin
└── dir-0002
    ├── file-0001.bin
    ├── file-0002.bin
    └── file-0003.bin

3 directories, 6 files

Start by tracking files.

$ git init
...
$ xvc init

$ xvc file track dir-*

Once you added the file to the cache, you can delete the workspace copy.

$ rm dir-0001/file-0001.bin
$ lsd -l dir-0001/file-*
total[..]
drwxr-xr-x [..] dir-0001
drwxr-xr-x [..] dir-0002

Then, recheck the file. By default, it makes a copy of the file.

$ xvc file recheck dir-0001/file-0001.bin

$ lsd -l
.rw-rw-rw- [..] data.txt

You can track and recheck complete directories

$ xvc file track dir-0002/
$ rm -rf dir-0002/
$ xvc -v file recheck dir-0002/
$ lsd -l dir-0002/
total 24
-rw-rw-rw-[..] file-0001.bin
-rw-rw-rw-[..] file-0002.bin
-rw-rw-rw-[..] file-0003.bin

You can use glob patterns to recheck files.

$ xvc file track 'dir-*'

You can update the recheck method of a file. Otherwise it will be kept as same before.

$ rm -rf dir-0002/
$ xvc -v file recheck dir-0002/ --as symlink
$ ls -l dir-0002/
total 0
lrwxr-xr-x[..] file-0001.bin -> [CWD]/.xvc/b3/3c9/255/424e13d9c38a37c5ddd376e1070cdd5de66996fbc82194c462f653856d/0.bin
lrwxr-xr-x[..] file-0002.bin -> [CWD]/.xvc/b3/6bc/65f/581e3a03edb127b63b71c5690be176e2fe265266f70abc65f72613f62e/0.bin
lrwxr-xr-x[..] file-0003.bin -> [CWD]/.xvc/b3/804/fb8/edbb122e735facd7f943c1bbe754e939a968f385c12f56b10411a4a015/0.bin

$ rm -rf dir-0002/
$ xvc -v file recheck dir-0002/

$ ls -l dir-0002/
total 0
lrwxr-xr-x[..] file-0001.bin -> [CWD]/.xvc/b3/3c9/255/424e13d9c38a37c5ddd376e1070cdd5de66996fbc82194c462f653856d/0.bin
lrwxr-xr-x[..] file-0002.bin -> [CWD]/.xvc/b3/6bc/65f/581e3a03edb127b63b71c5690be176e2fe265266f70abc65f72613f62e/0.bin
lrwxr-xr-x[..] file-0003.bin -> [CWD]/.xvc/b3/804/fb8/edbb122e735facd7f943c1bbe754e939a968f385c12f56b10411a4a015/0.bin

Symlink and hardlinks are read-only. You can recheck as copy to update.

$ zsh -c 'echo "120912" >> dir-0002/file-0001.bin'
? 1
zsh:1: permission denied: dir-0002/file-0001.bin

$ xvc file recheck dir-0002/file-0001.bin --as copy

$ zsh -c 'echo "120912" >> dir-0002/file-0001.bin'

Note that, as files in the cache are kept read-only, hardlinks and symlinks are also read only. Files rechecked as copy are made read-write explicitly.

$ xvc -vv file recheck data.txt --as hardlink

$ ls -l
total[..]
drwxr-xr-x[..] dir-0001
drwxr-xr-x[..] dir-0002

Reflinks are supported by Xvc, but the underlying file system should also support it. Otherwise it uses copy.

$ rm -f data.txt
$ xvc file recheck data.txt --as reflink

The above command will create a read only link in macOS APFS and a copy in ext4 or NTFS file systems.