Large file contents

GIN repositories differentiate between large and small files. Large file contents are stored separately and small "pointer" files are left in their place. This separation has some advantages, which are detailed elsewhere on this wiki

The threshold separating small from large files is, by default, 10 MB. If you are using the GIN command line interface (GIN CLI), this threshold can be set in the client configuration When you upload data through the web interface, this threshold cannot be adjusted.

Content not available

If you clicked on a file in a repository and you received a warning that the contents are not available, this means that the pointer file is in the repository but the contents are not.

There are several ways this can happen:

• The user who added the file is still uploading the data.
• The user who added the file forgot to synchronise all the changes.
  • GIN CLI Example: If a large file is added to the repository using gin commit <filename> followed by a gin sync, the contents of large files are not uploaded unless the user runs the commands gin sync --content or gin upload <filename>.
  • Git + Git-annex Example: If a file is added to the repository using git annex add <filename> followed by a git annex sync or git commit and git push, the contents of large files are not uploaded unless the user runs git annex sync --content or git annex copy --to=<remote> <filename>.
• The repository is a fork and the large file contents need to be synchronised manually.