What is Git LFS?
Why Stack Overflow recommends it
Stack Overflow users link it as a short introduction when answering questions about what Git LFS is for and how tracking binary files with it works.
Recommended by 2 people across 2 different months, 2018 to 2022.
What it is
A 4-minute explainer by Tim Pettersen that describes why Git struggles with large binary files and how Git LFS (Large File Storage) addresses the problem. It covers the basic idea of storing pointers in the repository while the large files live on a separate server.
What people said
Recommends Marcelo Ávila de Oliveira · 2018-03 · Stack Overflow · on “How git lfs work ? Do I need to do "git add"?”
Do I need to maintain LFS store? No, the LFS store is maintained by the Git server. Do I need to do git lfs track *.dat every time? No, when you execute git lfs track *.dat , a .gitattributes file with the following content is created: *.dat filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text From now on every .dat file you create will be stored in the Git LFS. Do not forget to also add/commit/push the .gitattributes file so you never will need to recreate it again, in a case you (or someone else) needs to create the local repository. Do I need also do git add *.dat every time? Yes, the git add command continues to work the same way. To learn more about Git LFS and understand the issue it solves, see the Wh
Recommends Carel · 2018-12 · Stack Overflow · on “Why is my .gitattributes file not working on my Mac?”
I'm not entirely sure from your description whether or not the .scpt files are "partially" or "fully" binary in nature. If they are "fully" binary, ala dat , exe or bin formats, then use Git LFS [this video] to treat them as such. git lfs install # Installs the Git LFS hooks into you ./.git/ folder git lfs track "*.scpt" # Registers the *.scpt file extention as a binary format Note: The double quotes are required to apply to all *.scpt files not just those in the project root This will track changes to the files using the usual Git work flow, so you can roll back to some prior state. As I understand it Git LFS stores the entire file as is and doesn't track changes in the way that git does, think
Cites Gabriel Staples · 2022-06 · Stack Overflow · on “What is the difference between `git lfs fetch`, `git lfs fetch --all`, and `git lfs pull`?”
After a bunch of study and figuring out where the help pages are, here is what I have concluded. Be warned, however, that Git LFS is slow, inefficient, online (as opposed to Git, which is offline), and evil. Read my full rant [LINK] in my eRCaGuy_dotfiles [LINK] repo. How to use git lfs as a basic user This covers the question: "What is the difference between git lfs fetch , git lfs fetch --all , git lfs pull , and git lfs checkout ?" Summary # Fetch git lfs files for just the currently-checked-out branch or commit (Ex: 20 # GB of data). This downloads the files into your `.git/lfs` dir but does NOT # update them in your working file system for the branch or commit you have # currently check