git-annex has some really awkward documentation.

You can apparently do, sort of, but not really, the same thing git-fetch-file[1] does, with git-annex:

    git fetch-file add https://github.com/icculus/physfs.git "**" lib/physfs-main
    git fetch-file pull

`add` creates this at `.git-remote-files`:

    [file "**"]
    commit = 9d18d36b5a5207b72f473f05e1b2834e347d8144
    target = lib/physfs-main
    repository = https://github.com/icculus/physfs
    branch = main

But git-annex's documentation goes on and on about a bunch of commands I don't really want to read about, whereas those two lines and that .git-remote-files manifest just told you what git-fetch-file does.

[1]: https://github.com/andrewmcwattersandco/git-fetch-file