git bundle support or an "offline" workflow?

[christian-korneck]

git bundle is a a great git functionality to bundle individual commits into a container file that can then be used to update a git repository that is located on a computer which cannot directly reach the originating repository or the repository manager (i.e. github.com). I use it regularly to "pull" github repositories from isolated computers that don't have Internet access.

However, these bundle files don't include files tracked in git-lfs.

Are there any workarounds to achieve the same with git-lfs?
Are there any plans to add git bundle support to git-lfs (i.e. something like git lfs bundle)?

[ttaylorr]

Adding a git lfs bundle command would certainly be possible, but isn't something that's immediately on our roadmap. As always, the core team would welcome and assist in reviewing a pull-request to add support.

[ttaylorr]

Hi, circling back on the above. It is still the case that we do not have immediate plans to work on something like this, and I would still be more than happy to help anyone who is interested and does have the time. For now, since this isn't actively on my radar (or anyone else on @git-lfs/core, from my knowledge), I am going to close this.

[christian-korneck]

:-(

[zhengyongtao]

I have the same needs, are there no plans to achieve them?

[dvdveer]

I use a shell script to workaround this issue. It basically creates a tar archive with all the changed LFS files between the commits you want to bundle. When you want to unbundle you should extract the tar file before running git pull.

I've created a gist of it here: https://gist.github.com/dvdveer/a47966db83af115e6200124f92e22761

[christian-korneck]

@dvdveer thanks for sharing

[zhengyongtao]

I used a similar way to solve,but this way can only package the resources of the current branch. What should I do with the resources of other branches? @dvdveer

[dvdveer]

The script that I shared also works with other branches. The only condition is that the lfs objects are already downloaded in your local repository. I solve this by running git lfs fetch --all before running the script, but this may not be feasible if you have a large total size of LFS objects. Unfortunately, I do not know of a git-lfs command that downloads an lfs object when you have it's hash. As far as I know the git lfs fetch command only takes git commits as argument.

[ModischFabrications]

I agree with the previous posters that bundle support is a necessity for some workflows, in my case to work on a git repo over an airgap. Using a local remote on a usb-stick seems to be unsupported by lfs as well (#3078), is there any alternative that I didn't think of that could replace both?

The solution from @dvdveer is nice bandaid, but an "official" solution that is tested and can be used reliably would be much appreciated.

[bk2204]

Local repositories are indeed supported and have been since I believe 2.10.0. You can therefore create a flash drive (I'd pick UDF, not FAT or exFAT) and push a repository to that flash drive.

[n3mc]

@bk2204 Is there any info on how to create a local repositry using LFS? You mentioned above creating a flash drive and push the repository to this. Would it be possible to get steps on this process?

[christian-korneck]

I assume that comment referred to this:
#3918

[n3mc]

I assume that comment referred to this: #3918

Thanks! I'm still not sure about the whole process - we are looking to create an offline bundle with a repository using LFS

Can't seem to find a comprehensive list of steps to recreate this

[bk2204]

The way to create a local LFS repository is simply git init --bare in the destination directory. Once you push into that repository with a local path or a file:/// URL, it will contain the proper LFS objects.