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 objects into .git/lost-found/commit/ or
  69         .git/lost-found/other/, depending on type.  If the object is
  70         a blob, the contents are written into the file, rather than
  71         its object name.
  72
  73 It tests SHA1 and general object sanity, and it does full tracking of
  74 the resulting reachability and everything else. It prints out any
  75 corruption it finds (missing or bad objects), and if you use the
  76 '--unreachable' flag it will also print out objects that exist but
  77 that aren't readable from any of the specified head nodes.
  78
  79 So for example
  80
  81         git-fsck --unreachable HEAD $(cat .git/refs/heads/*)
  82
  83 will do quite a _lot_ of verification on the tree. There are a few
  84 extra validity tests to be added (make sure that tree objects are
  85 sorted properly etc), but on the whole if "git-fsck" is happy, you
  86 do have a valid tree.
  87
  88 Any corrupt objects you will have to find in backups or other archives
  89 (i.e., you can just remove them and do an "rsync" with some other site in
  90 the hopes that somebody else has the object you have corrupted).
  91
  92 Of course, "valid tree" doesn't mean that it wasn't generated by some
  93 evil person, and the end result might be crap. git is a revision
  94 tracking system, not a quality assurance system ;)
  95
  96 Extracted Diagnostics
  97 ---------------------
  98
  99 expect dangling commits - potential heads - due to lack of head information::
 100         You haven't specified any nodes as heads so it won't be
 101         possible to differentiate between un-parented commits and
 102         root nodes.
 103
 104 missing sha1 directory '<dir>'::
 105         The directory holding the sha1 objects is missing.
 106
 107 unreachable <type> <object>::
 108         The <type> object <object>, isn't actually referred to directly
 109         or indirectly in any of the trees or commits seen. This can
 110         mean that there's another root node that you're not specifying
 111         or that the tree is corrupt. If you haven't missed a root node
 112         then you might as well delete unreachable nodes since they
 113         can't be used.
 114
 115 missing <type> <object>::
 116         The <type> object <object>, is referred to but isn't present in
 117         the database.
 118
 119 dangling <type> <object>::
 120         The <type> object <object>, is present in the database but never
 121         'directly' used. A dangling commit could be a root node.
 122
 123 warning: git-fsck: tree <tree> has full pathnames in it::
 124         And it shouldn't...
 125
 126 sha1 mismatch <object>::
 127         The database has an object who's sha1 doesn't match the
 128         database value.
 129         This indicates a serious data integrity problem.
 130
 131 Environment Variables
 132 ---------------------
 133
 134 GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY::
 135         used to specify the object database root (usually $GIT_DIR/objects)
 136
 137 GIT_INDEX_FILE::
 138         used to specify the index file of the index
 139
 140 GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES::
 141         used to specify additional object database roots (usually unset)
 142
 143 Author
 144 ------
 145 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 146
 147 Documentation
 148 --------------
 149 Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 150
 151 GIT
 152 ---
 153 Part of the linkgit:git[7] suite