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          [--[no-]full] [--strict] [--verbose] [--lost-found]
  14          [--[no-]dangling] [--[no-]progress] [--connectivity-only] [<object>*]
  15
  16 DESCRIPTION
  17 -----------
  18 Verifies the connectivity and validity of the objects in the database.
  19
  20 OPTIONS
  21 -------
  22 <object>::
  23         An object to treat as the head of an unreachability trace.
  24 +
  25 If no objects are given, 'git fsck' defaults to using the
  26 index file, all SHA-1 references in `refs` namespace, and all reflogs
  27 (unless --no-reflogs is given) as heads.
  28
  29 --unreachable::
  30         Print out objects that exist but that aren't reachable from any
  31         of the reference nodes.
  32
  33 --[no-]dangling::
  34         Print objects that exist but that are never 'directly' used (default).
  35         `--no-dangling` can be used to omit this information from the output.
  36
  37 --root::
  38         Report root nodes.
  39
  40 --tags::
  41         Report tags.
  42
  43 --cache::
  44         Consider any object recorded in the index also as a head node for
  45         an unreachability trace.
  46
  47 --no-reflogs::
  48         Do not consider commits that are referenced only by an
  49         entry in a reflog to be reachable.  This option is meant
  50         only to search for commits that used to be in a ref, but
  51         now aren't, but are still in that corresponding reflog.
  52
  53 --full::
  54         Check not just objects in GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY
  55         ($GIT_DIR/objects), but also the ones found in alternate
  56         object pools listed in GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES
  57         or $GIT_DIR/objects/info/alternates,
  58         and in packed Git archives found in $GIT_DIR/objects/pack
  59         and corresponding pack subdirectories in alternate
  60         object pools.  This is now default; you can turn it off
  61         with --no-full.
  62
  63 --connectivity-only::
  64         Check only the connectivity of tags, commits and tree objects. By
  65         avoiding to unpack blobs, this speeds up the operation, at the
  66         expense of missing corrupt objects or other problematic issues.
  67
  68 --strict::
  69         Enable more strict checking, namely to catch a file mode
  70         recorded with g+w bit set, which was created by older
  71         versions of Git.  Existing repositories, including the
  72         Linux kernel, Git itself, and sparse repository have old
  73         objects that triggers this check, but it is recommended
  74         to check new projects with this flag.
  75
  76 --verbose::
  77         Be chatty.
  78
  79 --lost-found::
  80         Write dangling objects into .git/lost-found/commit/ or
  81         .git/lost-found/other/, depending on type.  If the object is
  82         a blob, the contents are written into the file, rather than
  83         its object name.
  84
  85 --[no-]progress::
  86         Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by
  87         default when it is attached to a terminal, unless
  88         --no-progress or --verbose is specified. --progress forces
  89         progress status even if the standard error stream is not
  90         directed to a terminal.
  91
  92 DISCUSSION
  93 ----------
  94
  95 git-fsck tests SHA-1 and general object sanity, and it does full tracking
  96 of the resulting reachability and everything else. It prints out any
  97 corruption it finds (missing or bad objects), and if you use the
  98 '--unreachable' flag it will also print out objects that exist but that
  99 aren't reachable from any of the specified head nodes (or the default
 100 set, as mentioned above).
 101
 102 Any corrupt objects you will have to find in backups or other archives
 103 (i.e., you can just remove them and do an 'rsync' with some other site in
 104 the hopes that somebody else has the object you have corrupted).
 105
 106 Extracted Diagnostics
 107 ---------------------
 108
 109 expect dangling commits - potential heads - due to lack of head information::
 110         You haven't specified any nodes as heads so it won't be
 111         possible to differentiate between un-parented commits and
 112         root nodes.
 113
 114 missing sha1 directory '<dir>'::
 115         The directory holding the sha1 objects is missing.
 116
 117 unreachable <type> <object>::
 118         The <type> object <object>, isn't actually referred to directly
 119         or indirectly in any of the trees or commits seen. This can
 120         mean that there's another root node that you're not specifying
 121         or that the tree is corrupt. If you haven't missed a root node
 122         then you might as well delete unreachable nodes since they
 123         can't be used.
 124
 125 missing <type> <object>::
 126         The <type> object <object>, is referred to but isn't present in
 127         the database.
 128
 129 dangling <type> <object>::
 130         The <type> object <object>, is present in the database but never
 131         'directly' used. A dangling commit could be a root node.
 132
 133 sha1 mismatch <object>::
 134         The database has an object who's sha1 doesn't match the
 135         database value.
 136         This indicates a serious data integrity problem.
 137
 138 Environment Variables
 139 ---------------------
 140
 141 GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY::
 142         used to specify the object database root (usually $GIT_DIR/objects)
 143
 144 GIT_INDEX_FILE::
 145         used to specify the index file of the index
 146
 147 GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES::
 148         used to specify additional object database roots (usually unset)
 149
 150 GIT
 151 ---
 152 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite