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 tags, commits and tree objects. By
  66         avoiding to unpack blobs, this speeds up the operation, at the
  67         expense of missing corrupt objects or other problematic issues.
  68
  69 --strict::
  70         Enable more strict checking, namely to catch a file mode
  71         recorded with g+w bit set, which was created by older
  72         versions of Git.  Existing repositories, including the
  73         Linux kernel, Git itself, and sparse repository have old
  74         objects that triggers this check, but it is recommended
  75         to check new projects with this flag.
  76
  77 --verbose::
  78         Be chatty.
  79
  80 --lost-found::
  81         Write dangling objects into .git/lost-found/commit/ or
  82         .git/lost-found/other/, depending on type.  If the object is
  83         a blob, the contents are written into the file, rather than
  84         its object name.
  85
  86 --name-objects::
  87         When displaying names of reachable objects, in addition to the
  88         SHA-1 also display a name that describes *how* they are reachable,
  89         compatible with linkgit:git-rev-parse[1], e.g.
  90         `HEAD@{1234567890}~25^2:src/`.
  91
  92 --[no-]progress::
  93         Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by
  94         default when it is attached to a terminal, unless
  95         --no-progress or --verbose is specified. --progress forces
  96         progress status even if the standard error stream is not
  97         directed to a terminal.
  98
  99 DISCUSSION
 100 ----------
 101
 102 git-fsck tests SHA-1 and general object sanity, and it does full tracking
 103 of the resulting reachability and everything else. It prints out any
 104 corruption it finds (missing or bad objects), and if you use the
 105 `--unreachable` flag it will also print out objects that exist but that
 106 aren't reachable from any of the specified head nodes (or the default
 107 set, as mentioned above).
 108
 109 Any corrupt objects you will have to find in backups or other archives
 110 (i.e., you can just remove them and do an 'rsync' with some other site in
 111 the hopes that somebody else has the object you have corrupted).
 112
 113 If core.commitGraph is true, the commit-graph file will also be inspected
 114 using 'git commit-graph verify'. See linkgit:git-commit-graph[1].
 115
 116 Extracted Diagnostics
 117 ---------------------
 118
 119 expect dangling commits - potential heads - due to lack of head information::
 120         You haven't specified any nodes as heads so it won't be
 121         possible to differentiate between un-parented commits and
 122         root nodes.
 123
 124 missing sha1 directory '<dir>'::
 125         The directory holding the sha1 objects is missing.
 126
 127 unreachable <type> <object>::
 128         The <type> object <object>, isn't actually referred to directly
 129         or indirectly in any of the trees or commits seen. This can
 130         mean that there's another root node that you're not specifying
 131         or that the tree is corrupt. If you haven't missed a root node
 132         then you might as well delete unreachable nodes since they
 133         can't be used.
 134
 135 missing <type> <object>::
 136         The <type> object <object>, is referred to but isn't present in
 137         the database.
 138
 139 dangling <type> <object>::
 140         The <type> object <object>, is present in the database but never
 141         'directly' used. A dangling commit could be a root node.
 142
 143 sha1 mismatch <object>::
 144         The database has an object who's sha1 doesn't match the
 145         database value.
 146         This indicates a serious data integrity problem.
 147
 148 Environment Variables
 149 ---------------------
 150
 151 GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY::
 152         used to specify the object database root (usually $GIT_DIR/objects)
 153
 154 GIT_INDEX_FILE::
 155         used to specify the index file of the index
 156
 157 GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES::
 158         used to specify additional object database roots (usually unset)
 159
 160 GIT
 161 ---
 162 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite