gitattributes to not annex docker metadata

[bpinsard]

I wonder if datalad-container should edit .datalad/.gitattributes when adding docker images to include

environments/**/*.json annex.largefiles=nothing
environments/*/image/repositories annex.largefiles=nothing

The json files are really small and better handled by git.
It would also avoid errors where the layers are already in the local docker service and can avoid pulling them from the repo, but still need the manifest to check for hashes.

[yarikoptic]

what about adding some cfg_containers alike https://github.com/datalad/datalad-neuroimaging/blob/master/datalad_neuroimaging/resources/procedures/cfg_bids.py which would do that upon user demand as running that procedure or datalad create -c containers ?

[yarikoptic]

interested to PR it? ;-)

[adswa]

I think this is an important issue. Ping #149, where this was reported already

[mih]

Hey @bpinsard, I am looking into some issues re handling on windows and this also became apparent to me. Given that #204 did not go anywhere, I will approach this another way. please let me know, what you think about the following:

• containers-add: creates the <name>/image directory, we can add a largefile setup within this directory -- with little complexity, and without running into any conflicts.
• IMHO it is sensible to place the .json and repositories files directly into Git. I'd do this by default. For those that require a different default, I would introduce a configuration flag (but not extend the API).

[bpinsard]

@mih that seems to be a good solution. Sorry, I did not followed-up on the drafted PR as I thought that the cfg_txt2git was the fix to be applied.

[mih]

It seems that resolving this issue is a precondition for addressing #199 -- at least for the approach sketched in #199 (comment)