Create user cache directory $ USERCACHE=`pwd`/cache; export USERCACHE $ cat <> ${HGRCPATH} > [extensions] > hgext.largefiles= > [largefiles] > usercache=${USERCACHE} > EOF $ mkdir -p ${USERCACHE} Create source repo, and commit adding largefile. $ hg init src $ cd src $ echo large > large $ hg add --large large $ hg commit -m 'add largefile' $ cd .. Discard all cached largefiles in USERCACHE $ rm -rf ${USERCACHE} Create mirror repo, and pull from source without largefile: "pull" is used instead of "clone" for suppression of (1) updating to tip (= cahcing largefile from source repo), and (2) recording source repo as "default" path in .hg/hgrc. $ hg init mirror $ cd mirror $ hg pull ../src pulling from ../src requesting all changes adding changesets adding manifests adding file changes added 1 changesets with 1 changes to 1 files (run 'hg update' to get a working copy) Update working directory to "tip", which requires largefile("large"), but there is no cache file for it. So, hg must treat it as "missing"(!) file. $ hg update 1 files updated, 0 files merged, 0 files removed, 0 files unresolved getting changed largefiles large: Can't get file locally (no default or default-push path set in hgrc) 0 largefiles updated, 0 removed $ hg status ! large Update working directory to null: this cleanup .hg/largefiles/dirstate $ hg update null 0 files updated, 0 files merged, 1 files removed, 0 files unresolved getting changed largefiles 0 largefiles updated, 0 removed Update working directory to tip, again. $ hg update 1 files updated, 0 files merged, 0 files removed, 0 files unresolved getting changed largefiles large: Can't get file locally (no default or default-push path set in hgrc) 0 largefiles updated, 0 removed $ hg status ! large