Is there appetite to extend Use Git button to using git lfs as well?

[DaveParr]

The package currently calls to devtool::use_git() when the Use git option is TRUE. The package also contains the option of including a data folder. git lfs (large file storage) is a useful extension to git that indexes file by type/location, and commits them to git in a safe way that doesn't lock up the repo when it's hosted externally, or slow it down if a large data set changes a lot.

Would it be technically possible to have a use git lfs button? I don't believe devtools has a wrapper to it, so any solution will probably have to be implemented slightly differently. If it were possible, would it be useful/desired?

[stephlocke]

That's a nifty idea! It's pretty easy to setup tracking for common data extensions like csv sqlite etc
We could use git2r to execute the commands

It'll have to be an opt-in but it's a great idea

[maelle]

for large files & GitHub see also https://github.com/cboettig/piggyback

[maelle]

@DaveParr could you explain more precisely what you'd want? Thanks!

[stephlocke]

Not sure about Dave but I frequently want datasets or have outputs that bust the max file size for github - setting it up retrospectively is often cripplingly hard and I'd welcome it being "on by default"

[maelle]

In practice, does this mean gitignoring+lfs-ing a folder by default? which folder?

[stephlocke]

possibly the data folder and outputs folders or having a set of default extensions we'll LFS as part of the fn args

[maelle]

Ok. When I get to this, I'll probably do some reading and more questioning. 😁

[DaveParr]

That's a pretty accurate summary of what I had in mind :)