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] [--lost-found] [<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 --lost-found::
  68         Write dangling refs into .git/lost-found/commit/ or
  69         .git/lost-found/other/, depending on type.
  70
  71 It tests SHA1 and general object sanity, and it does full tracking of
  72 the resulting reachability and everything else. It prints out any
  73 corruption it finds (missing or bad objects), and if you use the
  74 '--unreachable' flag it will also print out objects that exist but
  75 that aren't readable from any of the specified head nodes.
  76
  77 So for example
  78
  79         git-fsck --unreachable HEAD $(cat .git/refs/heads/*)
  80
  81 will do quite a _lot_ of verification on the tree. There are a few
  82 extra validity tests to be added (make sure that tree objects are
  83 sorted properly etc), but on the whole if "git-fsck" is happy, you
  84 do have a valid tree.
  85
  86 Any corrupt objects you will have to find in backups or other archives
  87 (i.e., you can just remove them and do an "rsync" with some other site in
  88 the hopes that somebody else has the object you have corrupted).
  89
  90 Of course, "valid tree" doesn't mean that it wasn't generated by some
  91 evil person, and the end result might be crap. git is a revision
  92 tracking system, not a quality assurance system ;)
  93
  94 Extracted Diagnostics
  95 ---------------------
  96
  97 expect dangling commits - potential heads - due to lack of head information::
  98         You haven't specified any nodes as heads so it won't be
  99         possible to differentiate between un-parented commits and
 100         root nodes.
 101
 102 missing sha1 directory '<dir>'::
 103         The directory holding the sha1 objects is missing.
 104
 105 unreachable <type> <object>::
 106         The <type> object <object>, isn't actually referred to directly
 107         or indirectly in any of the trees or commits seen. This can
 108         mean that there's another root node that you're not specifying
 109         or that the tree is corrupt. If you haven't missed a root node
 110         then you might as well delete unreachable nodes since they
 111         can't be used.
 112
 113 missing <type> <object>::
 114         The <type> object <object>, is referred to but isn't present in
 115         the database.
 116
 117 dangling <type> <object>::
 118         The <type> object <object>, is present in the database but never
 119         'directly' used. A dangling commit could be a root node.
 120
 121 warning: git-fsck: tree <tree> has full pathnames in it::
 122         And it shouldn't...
 123
 124 sha1 mismatch <object>::
 125         The database has an object who's sha1 doesn't match the
 126         database value.
 127         This indicates a serious data integrity problem.
 128
 129 Environment Variables
 130 ---------------------
 131
 132 GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY::
 133         used to specify the object database root (usually $GIT_DIR/objects)
 134
 135 GIT_INDEX_FILE::
 136         used to specify the index file of the index
 137
 138 GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES::
 139         used to specify additional object database roots (usually unset)
 140
 141 Author
 142 ------
 143 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 144
 145 Documentation
 146 --------------
 147 Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 148
 149 GIT
 150 ---
 151 Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite