[[!comment format=mdwn
 username="Chel"
 subject="comment 1"
 date="2015-06-30T06:32:59Z"
 content="""
If there are no branches, other than git-annex, then you do not have git history.

If it is really the old repository with deleted branches and not a newly created
one, then there is a possibility, that the git history has not been fully
deleted/garbage-collected yet (i.e. there are old objects and packs in
`.git/objects` and `.git/objects/pack`). It that case:

1. *Do not run* git commands until you create a backup of the .git directory,
   because some usual git commands automatically launch `git gc --auto`, which
   removes some old unreachable objects (and maybe reflog entries).

2. See if there are some reflogs of deleted branches or HEAD left in `.git/logs`.
   Reflogs will give you commit ids that branches’ tips pointed to. But usually
   reflogs are deleted with their branches.

3. As the last resort, use `git fsck --dangling` to find objects, that may be
   the commits of deleted branches. See also other options of `git fsck` command.

Of course, all that is not necessary if you have a clone of the repo somewhere.
Then just fetch the history from it.

Git history will give you the history of modifications in the repository, the
content of not annexed files (that were stored directly in git) and the names
of annexed files (represented as symlinks).

If all you need is just the contents of annexed files, then look at
`.git/annex/objects`.  
**But**: if the repository was in direct mode, then `.git/annex/objects` *may*
contain only *old* versions of files. The current versions of annexed files
in direct mode are stored in the working directory, which is empty in your case.

The git-annex branch contains just the location log of the content of annexed
files, i.e. which git-annex repositories and when stored the contents.

"""]]
