[[!comment format=mdwn
 username="joey"
 subject="""comment 1"""
 date="2018-01-15T17:12:43Z"
 content="""
This is complicated because git-annex uses wget, curl, and http-conduit at
different times. wget always uses .netrc, curl only uses it with a --netrc
option (which git-annex does not currently provide although the user can),
and http-conduit does not support .netrc.

The choices of which git-annex uses when are constrained by the limitations
of all three, and were chosen to make it work as well as possible. Also,
curl and wget are not available in all installations of git-annex.

As far as I can see, `git annex fsck --from web` makes the same wget/curl
choice as `git annex get --from web` will make, typically wget, but
curl if wget is not available or if run with --quiet.

However, `git annex fsck --fast --from web` uses http-conduit by default.
It could be changed to default to using curl (wget is not an option there).

But, I'm kind of inclined toward moving away from using wget/curl at all,
and toward http-conduit for all http urls. Thus avoiding the
inconsistencies and various annoying behaviors of wget/curl. So, making a
change that requires .netrc be supported going forward needs to be
considered in that light. One possibility would be to use
<https://hackage.haskell.org/package/netrc> to make netrc work with
http-conduit.
"""]]
