xvc file track

Purpose

xvc file track is used to register any kind of file to Xvc for tracking versions.

Synopsis

$ xvc file track --help
Add file and directories to Xvc

Usage: xvc file track [OPTIONS] [TARGETS]...

Arguments:
  [TARGETS]...
          Files/directories to track

Options:
      --cache-type <CACHE_TYPE>
          How to track the file contents in cache: One of copy, symlink, hardlink, reflink.
          
          Note: Reflink uses copy if the underlying file system doesn't support it.

      --no-commit
          Do not copy/link added files to the file cache

      --text-or-binary <TEXT_OR_BINARY>
          Calculate digests as text or binary file without checking contents, or by automatically. (Default: auto)

      --force
          Add targets even if they are already tracked

      --no-parallel
          Don't use parallelism

  -h, --help
          Print help (see a summary with '-h')

Examples

By default, the command runs similar to git add and git commit.

$ xvc file track my-large-image.jpeg

You can track directories with the same command.

$ xvc file track my-large-directory/

You can specify more than one target in a single command.

$ xvc file track my-large-image.jpeg my-large-directory

Caveats

This command doesn't discriminate symbolic links or hardlinks. Links are followed and any broken links may cause errors.
Under the hood, Xvc tracks only the files, not directories. Directories are considered as path collections. It doesn't matter if you track a directory or files in it separately.

Technical Details

Detecting changes in files and directories employ different kinds of associated digests. If a file has different metadata digest, its content digest is calculated. If file's content digest has changed, the file is considered changed. A directory that contains different set of files, or files with changed content is considered changed.

The Xvc Book