Git LFS Scripts

Generally useful Git subcommands for working with Git LFS.

These tools were written along with the miniseries of articles about Git LFS on mslinn.com.

Commands

All commands can be invoked as Git subcommands (e.g., git ls-files, git nonlfs):

• git-delete-github-repo - Deletes the given GitHub repo without prompting (requires gh CLI)
• git-giftless - Run Giftless Git LFS server (requires Python with giftless and uwsgi)
• git-lfs-trace - Git LFS transfer adapter that reports activity between Git client and LFS server
• git-ls-files - Frontend for git ls-files with pattern permutation
• git-lfs-files - Frontend for git lfs ls-files with pattern permutation
• git-lfs-track - Frontend for git lfs track with pattern permutation
• git-lfs-untrack - Frontend for git lfs untrack with pattern permutation
• git-new-bare-repo - Creates a bare Git repository
• git-nonlfs - Lists files that are not in Git LFS
• git-unmigrate - Reverses git lfs migrate import for given wildmatch patterns

Installation

Prerequisites

• Go 1.18 or later
• Git
• For git-giftless: Python 3 with giftless and uwsgi installed
• For git-delete-github-repo: GitHub CLI (gh)

Build and Install

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/mslinn/git_lfs_scripts.git
cd git_lfs_scripts

# Build all binaries
make build

# Install to ~/.local/bin (default)
make install

# Or install to a custom location
make install INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/bin

Make sure the installation directory is in your PATH. For ~/.local/bin:

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Using Go Install Directly

Alternatively, you can install individual commands directly:

go install github.com/mslinn/git_lfs_scripts/cmd/git-ls-files@latest
go install github.com/mslinn/git_lfs_scripts/cmd/git-nonlfs@latest
# etc.

Usage Examples

Pattern Permutation Commands

These commands expand file extension patterns for convenience:

# Track all PDF files (current directory only)
git lfs-track pdf

# Track all MP3 files in upper and lower case (everywhere)
git lfs-track -ce mp3

# Dry run to see what would be tracked
git lfs-track -dce mp3 mp4

# Flags can be combined or separate
git lfs-track -d -c -e mp3    # Same as -dce

# Long flag names are also supported
git lfs-track --dryrun --bothcases --everywhere mp3

# List all files not tracked by LFS
git nonlfs

# Unmigrate files from LFS back to Git
git unmigrate -ce mp3

Common Flags

Commands that support pattern permutation (git-ls-files, git-lfs-files, git-lfs-track, git-lfs-untrack) support:

• -c, --bothcases - Expand pattern to upper and lower case (useful for media files)
• -d, --dryrun - Show what would be done without executing
• -e, --everywhere - Apply pattern recursively in all directories
• -h, --help - Show help message

Flags can be combined (e.g., -dce) or used separately (e.g., -d -c -e).

Server and Repository Commands

# Start Giftless LFS server
git giftless --port 8080 --workers 4

# Create a new bare repository
git new-bare-repo /path/to/repo.git

# Delete a GitHub repository
git delete-github-repo my-test-repo

LFS Trace Adapter

To use the LFS trace adapter, configure it in your Git LFS config:

git config lfs.customtransfer.trace.path `which git-lfs-trace`

The above adds something similar to the following to the current Git repository configuration (.git/config)

[lfs "customtransfer.trace"]
  path = /home/mslinn/go/bin/git-lfs-trace

Development

Building

make build          # Build all binaries
make test           # Run tests
make clean          # Clean build artifacts
make tidy           # Tidy go.mod

Project Structure

.
├── cmd/                    # Command implementations
│   ├── git-ls-files/
│   ├── git-lfs-files/
│   ├── git-lfs-track/
│   ├── git-lfs-untrack/
│   ├── git-lfs-trace/
│   ├── git-nonlfs/
│   ├── git-unmigrate/
│   ├── git-new-bare-repo/
│   ├── git-delete-github-repo/
│   └── git-giftless/
├── internal/               # Shared internal packages
│   ├── common/            # Common utilities
│   ├── lfsfiles/          # Pattern permutation logic
│   └── github/            # GitHub operations
├── Makefile               # Build automation
└── README.md              # This file