Documentation/git-fsck.txt

   1 git-fsck(1)
   2 ===========
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-fsck - Verifies the connectivity and validity of the objects in the database
   7
   8
   9 SYNOPSIS
  10 --------
  11 [verse]
  12 'git-fsck' [--tags] [--root] [--unreachable] [--cache] [--no-reflogs]
  13                  [--full] [--strict] [--verbose] [<object>*]
  14
  15 DESCRIPTION
  16 -----------
  17 Verifies the connectivity and validity of the objects in the database.
  18
  19 OPTIONS
  20 -------
  21 <object>::
  22         An object to treat as the head of an unreachability trace.
  23 +
  24 If no objects are given, git-fsck defaults to using the
  25 index file and all SHA1 references in .git/refs/* as heads.
  26
  27 --unreachable::
  28         Print out objects that exist but that aren't readable from any
  29         of the reference nodes.
  30
  31 --root::
  32         Report root nodes.
  33
  34 --tags::
  35         Report tags.
  36
  37 --cache::
  38         Consider any object recorded in the index also as a head node for
  39         an unreachability trace.
  40
  41 --no-reflogs::
  42         Do not consider commits that are referenced only by an
  43         entry in a reflog to be reachable.  This option is meant
  44         only to search for commits that used to be in a ref, but
  45         now aren't, but are still in that corresponding reflog.
  46
  47 --full::
  48         Check not just objects in GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY
  49         ($GIT_DIR/objects), but also the ones found in alternate
  50         object pools listed in GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES
  51         or $GIT_DIR/objects/info/alternates,
  52         and in packed git archives found in $GIT_DIR/objects/pack
  53         and corresponding pack subdirectories in alternate
  54         object pools.
  55
  56 --strict::
  57         Enable more strict checking, namely to catch a file mode
  58         recorded with g+w bit set, which was created by older
  59         versions of git.  Existing repositories, including the
  60         Linux kernel, git itself, and sparse repository have old
  61         objects that triggers this check, but it is recommended
  62         to check new projects with this flag.
  63
  64 --verbose::
  65         Be chatty.
  66
  67 It tests SHA1 and general object sanity, and it does full tracking of
  68 the resulting reachability and everything else. It prints out any
  69 corruption it finds (missing or bad objects), and if you use the
  70 '--unreachable' flag it will also print out objects that exist but
  71 that aren't readable from any of the specified head nodes.
  72
  73 So for example
  74
  75         git-fsck --unreachable HEAD $(cat .git/refs/heads/*)
  76
  77 will do quite a _lot_ of verification on the tree. There are a few
  78 extra validity tests to be added (make sure that tree objects are
  79 sorted properly etc), but on the whole if "git-fsck" is happy, you
  80 do have a valid tree.
  81
  82 Any corrupt objects you will have to find in backups or other archives
  83 (i.e., you can just remove them and do an "rsync" with some other site in
  84 the hopes that somebody else has the object you have corrupted).
  85
  86 Of course, "valid tree" doesn't mean that it wasn't generated by some
  87 evil person, and the end result might be crap. git is a revision
  88 tracking system, not a quality assurance system ;)
  89
  90 Extracted Diagnostics
  91 ---------------------
  92
  93 expect dangling commits - potential heads - due to lack of head information::
  94         You haven't specified any nodes as heads so it won't be
  95         possible to differentiate between un-parented commits and
  96         root nodes.
  97
  98 missing sha1 directory '<dir>'::
  99         The directory holding the sha1 objects is missing.
 100
 101 unreachable <type> <object>::
 102         The <type> object <object>, isn't actually referred to directly
 103         or indirectly in any of the trees or commits seen. This can
 104         mean that there's another root node that you're not specifying
 105         or that the tree is corrupt. If you haven't missed a root node
 106         then you might as well delete unreachable nodes since they
 107         can't be used.
 108
 109 missing <type> <object>::
 110         The <type> object <object>, is referred to but isn't present in
 111         the database.
 112
 113 dangling <type> <object>::
 114         The <type> object <object>, is present in the database but never
 115         'directly' used. A dangling commit could be a root node.
 116
 117 warning: git-fsck: tree <tree> has full pathnames in it::
 118         And it shouldn't...
 119
 120 sha1 mismatch <object>::
 121         The database has an object who's sha1 doesn't match the
 122         database value.
 123         This indicates a serious data integrity problem.
 124
 125 Environment Variables
 126 ---------------------
 127
 128 GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY::
 129         used to specify the object database root (usually $GIT_DIR/objects)
 130
 131 GIT_INDEX_FILE::
 132         used to specify the index file of the index
 133
 134 GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES::
 135         used to specify additional object database roots (usually unset)
 136
 137 Author
 138 ------
 139 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 140
 141 Documentation
 142 --------------
 143 Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 144
 145 GIT
 146 ---
 147 Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite