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]
  15          [--[no-]name-objects] [<object>...]
  16
  17 DESCRIPTION
  18 -----------
  19 Verifies the connectivity and validity of the objects in the database.
  20
  21 OPTIONS
  22 -------
  23 <object>::
  24         An object to treat as the head of an unreachability trace.
  25 +
  26 If no objects are given, 'git fsck' defaults to using the
  27 index file, all SHA-1 references in `refs` namespace, and all reflogs
  28 (unless --no-reflogs is given) as heads.
  29
  30 --unreachable::
  31         Print out objects that exist but that aren't reachable from any
  32         of the reference nodes.
  33
  34 --[no-]dangling::
  35         Print objects that exist but that are never 'directly' used (default).
  36         `--no-dangling` can be used to omit this information from the output.
  37
  38 --root::
  39         Report root nodes.
  40
  41 --tags::
  42         Report tags.
  43
  44 --cache::
  45         Consider any object recorded in the index also as a head node for
  46         an unreachability trace.
  47
  48 --no-reflogs::
  49         Do not consider commits that are referenced only by an
  50         entry in a reflog to be reachable.  This option is meant
  51         only to search for commits that used to be in a ref, but
  52         now aren't, but are still in that corresponding reflog.
  53
  54 --full::
  55         Check not just objects in GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY
  56         ($GIT_DIR/objects), but also the ones found in alternate
  57         object pools listed in GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES
  58         or $GIT_DIR/objects/info/alternates,
  59         and in packed Git archives found in $GIT_DIR/objects/pack
  60         and corresponding pack subdirectories in alternate
  61         object pools.  This is now default; you can turn it off
  62         with --no-full.
  63
  64 --connectivity-only::
  65         Check only the connectivity of reachable objects, making sure
  66         that any objects referenced by a reachable tag, commit, or tree
  67         is present. This speeds up the operation by avoiding reading
  68         blobs entirely (though it does still check that referenced blobs
  69         exist). This will detect corruption in commits and trees, but
  70         not do any semantic checks (e.g., for format errors). Corruption
  71         in blob objects will not be detected at all.
  72 +
  73 Unreachable tags, commits, and trees will also be accessed to find the
  74 tips of dangling segments of history. Use `--no-dangling` if you don't
  75 care about this output and want to speed it up further.
  76
  77 --strict::
  78         Enable more strict checking, namely to catch a file mode
  79         recorded with g+w bit set, which was created by older
  80         versions of Git.  Existing repositories, including the
  81         Linux kernel, Git itself, and sparse repository have old
  82         objects that triggers this check, but it is recommended
  83         to check new projects with this flag.
  84
  85 --verbose::
  86         Be chatty.
  87
  88 --lost-found::
  89         Write dangling objects into .git/lost-found/commit/ or
  90         .git/lost-found/other/, depending on type.  If the object is
  91         a blob, the contents are written into the file, rather than
  92         its object name.
  93
  94 --name-objects::
  95         When displaying names of reachable objects, in addition to the
  96         SHA-1 also display a name that describes *how* they are reachable,
  97         compatible with linkgit:git-rev-parse[1], e.g.
  98         `HEAD@{1234567890}~25^2:src/`.
  99
 100 --[no-]progress::
 101         Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by
 102         default when it is attached to a terminal, unless
 103         --no-progress or --verbose is specified. --progress forces
 104         progress status even if the standard error stream is not
 105         directed to a terminal.
 106
 107 CONFIGURATION
 108 -------------
 109
 110 include::config/fsck.txt[]
 111
 112 DISCUSSION
 113 ----------
 114
 115 git-fsck tests SHA-1 and general object sanity, and it does full tracking
 116 of the resulting reachability and everything else. It prints out any
 117 corruption it finds (missing or bad objects), and if you use the
 118 `--unreachable` flag it will also print out objects that exist but that
 119 aren't reachable from any of the specified head nodes (or the default
 120 set, as mentioned above).
 121
 122 Any corrupt objects you will have to find in backups or other archives
 123 (i.e., you can just remove them and do an 'rsync' with some other site in
 124 the hopes that somebody else has the object you have corrupted).
 125
 126 If core.commitGraph is true, the commit-graph file will also be inspected
 127 using 'git commit-graph verify'. See linkgit:git-commit-graph[1].
 128
 129 Extracted Diagnostics
 130 ---------------------
 131
 132 unreachable <type> <object>::
 133         The <type> object <object>, isn't actually referred to directly
 134         or indirectly in any of the trees or commits seen. This can
 135         mean that there's another root node that you're not specifying
 136         or that the tree is corrupt. If you haven't missed a root node
 137         then you might as well delete unreachable nodes since they
 138         can't be used.
 139
 140 missing <type> <object>::
 141         The <type> object <object>, is referred to but isn't present in
 142         the database.
 143
 144 dangling <type> <object>::
 145         The <type> object <object>, is present in the database but never
 146         'directly' used. A dangling commit could be a root node.
 147
 148 hash mismatch <object>::
 149         The database has an object whose hash doesn't match the
 150         object database value.
 151         This indicates a serious data integrity problem.
 152
 153 Environment Variables
 154 ---------------------
 155
 156 GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY::
 157         used to specify the object database root (usually $GIT_DIR/objects)
 158
 159 GIT_INDEX_FILE::
 160         used to specify the index file of the index
 161
 162 GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES::
 163         used to specify additional object database roots (usually unset)
 164
 165 GIT
 166 ---
 167 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite