What is Git LFS?

What is git lfs?

Git LFS (Large File Storage) is an open-source extension for Git that enables the version control of large files, such as media files, CAD files, or binary files that are typically larger than a few megabytes in size.

Git LFS replaces these large files with small text pointers, which are stored in Git, while the actual large files are stored on a separate Git LFS server or an external storage service like Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure, or GitLab's LFS service.

By using Git LFS, you can reduce the size of your Git repository, speed up cloning and fetching, and avoid hitting the file size limits on GitHub and other Git hosting services.

Git LFS is easy to use and can be integrated with Git clients, such as GitHub Desktop, Sourcetree, or GitKraken. To use Git LFS, you need to install the Git LFS command-line client and configure your Git repository to track large files with Git LFS.

Can't Git handle the files directly?

Git is designed to handle text files efficiently, but it may not be the best choice for version controlling large binary files, such as media files, CAD files, or executables.

One of the reasons is that Git stores the entire history of a file, which can lead to large repository sizes and slow performance when dealing with large files. Additionally, Git uses a delta-based algorithm to store file changes, which can be inefficient for binary files that do not have a lot of commonalities between different versions.

Another issue is that some Git hosting services have file size limits on the repositories, which can cause issues when trying to push or pull large files.

Git LFS solves these problems by storing the actual large files outside of the Git repository and replacing them with small text pointers that can be easily version controlled by Git. This approach helps reduce the repository size, speed up cloning and fetching, and avoid hitting file size limits on Git hosting services.

Therefore, Git LFS is recommended for version controlling large binary files while Git is best suited for text files.