Managing Large Files in Git Repositories: A Guide to Git LFS
Why Storing Large Files in Git Repositories is a Bad Idea
Git repositories are designed to track changes to text-based files, not large binary files. When you add a large file to your repository, it becomes part of the repository’s history, even if you later delete it. This can quickly bloat the size of your repository, making it difficult to clone, push, or pull changes.
What is Git LFS?
Git LFS is an extension for Git that enables version control for large files. With Git LFS, you can store large files outside your Git repository and reference them via pointers. This keeps your repository small and fast, while still allowing you to version large files.
Benefits of Using Git LFS
- Better collaboration: Team members only need to download the actual contents of the large files they need, rather than the entire history of the file.
- Better version control: You can easily track changes to large files over time and roll back to earlier versions if necessary.
- Flexible storage options: You can choose where to store your large files, whether in a cloud storage service or on a dedicated server.
Installing Git LFS
To get started with Git LFS, you’ll need to install it on your system. You can download the latest release from the