# Using a dataset

**URL:** <https://renku.discourse.group/t/using-a-dataset/310>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [8 April 2021 08:18 UTC](https://renku.discourse.group/t/using-a-dataset/310 "2021-04-08T08:18:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![lgatto](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/renku.discourse.group/lgatto/32/64_2.png) [@lgatto](https://renku.discourse.group/u/lgatto)\
**Post date:** [8 April 2021 08:18 UTC](https://renku.discourse.group/t/using-a-dataset/310/1 "2021-04-08T08:18:18Z")

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Sorry in advance if I have missed the obvious documentation page answering my question, as it seems pretty basic.

I have added a [dataset](https://renkulab.io/datasets/fd64bfb7-7446-4c2f-ae89-c73d9c7a022d) that I would like to use in one of my [environments](https://renkulab.io/projects/laurent.gatto/renku-dataset). The is visible where I expect to see it, i.e. `data/ms3/ MS3TMT10_01022016_32917-33481.mzML`, but that file only contains the references to the actual data:

```auto
$ cat data/ms3/MS3TMT10_01022016_32917-33481.mzML
version https://git-lfs.github.com/spec/v1
oid sha256:d9d65d06e7b118b0aa68511f90bb11d3d1c4f697c92047eca0f11b70a411e526
size 36091582

```

The Renku CLI metioned importing data, which is already the case for me:

```auto
renku dataset import https://renkulab.io/datasets/fd64bfb7-7446-4c2f-ae89-c73d9c7a022d
CHECKSUM NAME SIZE (MB) TYPE
---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------- ----------- ------
fa51bb1bccb29f60409e6c79bee3b48d58a3574c MS3TMT10_01022016_32917-33481.mzML 36.00 mzML
Warning: Do you wish to download this version? [y/N]: y
Error: Dataset exists: "ms3".

```

My question is - what now? How can I materialise the actual data file and make use of it?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ralf.grubenmann](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/renku.discourse.group/ralf.grubenmann/32/78_2.png) [@ralf.grubenmann](https://renku.discourse.group/u/ralf.grubenmann)\
**Post date:** [8 April 2021 08:22 UTC](https://renku.discourse.group/t/using-a-dataset/310/2 "2021-04-08T08:22:07Z")

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That means the file is stored in Git LFS (Large File Storage). You can either enable the checkbox to “Automatically fetch LFS data” when creating the environment or use the commands documented in [Data in Renku — Renku documentation](https://renku.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user/data.html?highlight=LFS#useful-git-lfs-commands) to manually pull the contents of the files from Git LFS.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lgatto](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/renku.discourse.group/lgatto/32/64_2.png) [@lgatto](https://renku.discourse.group/u/lgatto)\
**Post date:** [8 April 2021 09:02 UTC](https://renku.discourse.group/t/using-a-dataset/310/3 "2021-04-08T09:02:15Z")

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I was trivial indeed - thank you!