How do I stop OneDrive from downloading git.exe on Windows?

Question

I have used Git on Windows for a while, but recently changed the setting and got this.

On almost every command for Git Bash (also on PowerShell and Github Desktop) I get

git.exe is being downloaded on OneDrive

(translation may not be exactly the same)

The setting that changed recently is moving my repos to a OneDrive folder in order to have them synced between two sessions: that is work desktop and remote virtual machine.

I can see that this may not be ideal, but it really works for me since I have the same settings on both sessions, and not really get used to doing many commit-push-pull. Not the main topic here, but feel free to comment.

(Edit): Upon reading solution, there are other ways to set this syncing that doesn't mess up with the internals of Git. Look for that instead. Thanks.

In any case, the strange thing is that the notifications happen only on the Remote Virtual Machine, but not on the desktop.

I have seen some notifications about some files in the repos, which I then attribute to OneDrive being nosy about every move I make file I move. But then I've also seen files I don't know about, and theres always git.exe attached to the notification.

In the first scenario I have tried tuning down the notifications for OneDrive. Some might say Microsoft does have a background for not letting users setup their notifications, so I'm still looking.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Most file syncing tools like OneDrive and Dropbox operate by syncing data file by file. This is a great approach if you're working on a single word-processing document or spreadsheet. However, it's not as great when you're working with a Git repository.

When changing between branches or making a commit, Git changes and creates a lot of files all at once. In order to be synced correctly, all of the created files must be written in a similar order: all the blobs must be written, then the trees, then the commits, and then the refs can be updated. If you do this out of order, your repository can be corrupted, since you can have branches that refer to objects that don't exist (or objects that refer to other objects that don't exist).

In addition, these tools can end up deleting files you wanted to have in your working tree or recreating files you didn't. So overall, you don't want to sync any Git repository using one of these tools.

You can write a bundle file with git bundle and sync that, or you can use rsync to sync a repository provided it's idle (not being modified) when you do. Note that if you sync a working tree, Git will need to refresh all files when you sync it across to the new machine, and also Git doesn't try to defend against untrusted users who have access to the working tree.

It's also not a good idea to sync your Git installation itself via OneDrive, which is what it sounds like might be happening. Instead, install Git for Windows on each machine independently and don't try to sync it across. OneDrive should have configuration options that let you control what's synced.