Annex -> LFS migration guide

We're announcing that we're deprecating Annex in 8.17, then removing it in 9.0.

https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/issues/1648

Todos:

• Draft guide
• Review (Axil, Sean P)

To update:

• https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/downgrade_ee_to_ce/README.html
• https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/workflow/git_annex.html
• https://about.gitlab.com/2015/02/17/gitlab-annex-solves-the-problem-of-versioning-large-binaries-with-git/

mentioned in issue #1648 (closed)

Resources:

• https://workingconcept.com/blog/git-annex-vs-git-lfs
• https://git-annex.branchable.com/
• https://about.gitlab.com/2015/02/17/gitlab-annex-solves-the-problem-of-versioning-large-binaries-with-git/
• http://git-annex.branchable.com/direct_mode/#index4h2
• https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/git-annex/+bug/1406678
• https://git-annex.branchable.com/not/
• https://about.gitlab.com/2015/11/23/announcing-git-lfs-support-in-gitlab/
• https://about.gitlab.com/2017/01/30/getting-started-with-git-lfs-tutorial/
• https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/workflow/git_annex.html
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/39337586/how-do-git-lfs-and-git-annex-differ

Some notes on what/where to start writing.

1. Compare the basic commands (clone, add, commit, push, pull) of Annex/LFS from a user perspective
2. Check if it possible to migrate paths in administrator guide from Annex to LFS. At this point I'm not sure where Annex stores objects.

@marin any idea with 2?

mentioned in issue gitlab-com/gitlab-docs#69 (closed)

@axil git annex stores files inside of annex/objects directory. This directory is within the git bare repository in git-data/repositories. git-annex and git-lfs objects are not compatible as they are using a different scheme. Users will have to fetch and reupload.

That helps a lot! Thanks :)

mentioned in merge request !1230 (merged)

marked the task Draft guide as completed

closed via merge request !1230 (merged)