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 DISCUSSION
 108 ----------
 109
 110 git-fsck tests SHA-1 and general object sanity, and it does full tracking
 111 of the resulting reachability and everything else. It prints out any
 112 corruption it finds (missing or bad objects), and if you use the
 113 `--unreachable` flag it will also print out objects that exist but that
 114 aren't reachable from any of the specified head nodes (or the default
 115 set, as mentioned above).
 116
 117 Any corrupt objects you will have to find in backups or other archives
 118 (i.e., you can just remove them and do an 'rsync' with some other site in
 119 the hopes that somebody else has the object you have corrupted).
 120
 121 If core.commitGraph is true, the commit-graph file will also be inspected
 122 using 'git commit-graph verify'. See linkgit:git-commit-graph[1].
 123
 124 Extracted Diagnostics
 125 ---------------------
 126
 127 expect dangling commits - potential heads - due to lack of head information::
 128         You haven't specified any nodes as heads so it won't be
 129         possible to differentiate between un-parented commits and
 130         root nodes.
 131
 132 missing sha1 directory '<dir>'::
 133         The directory holding the sha1 objects is missing.
 134
 135 unreachable <type> <object>::
 136         The <type> object <object>, isn't actually referred to directly
 137         or indirectly in any of the trees or commits seen. This can
 138         mean that there's another root node that you're not specifying
 139         or that the tree is corrupt. If you haven't missed a root node
 140         then you might as well delete unreachable nodes since they
 141         can't be used.
 142
 143 missing <type> <object>::
 144         The <type> object <object>, is referred to but isn't present in
 145         the database.
 146
 147 dangling <type> <object>::
 148         The <type> object <object>, is present in the database but never
 149         'directly' used. A dangling commit could be a root node.
 150
 151 hash mismatch <object>::
 152         The database has an object whose hash doesn't match the
 153         object database value.
 154         This indicates a serious data integrity problem.
 155
 156 Environment Variables
 157 ---------------------
 158
 159 GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY::
 160         used to specify the object database root (usually $GIT_DIR/objects)
 161
 162 GIT_INDEX_FILE::
 163         used to specify the index file of the index
 164
 165 GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES::
 166         used to specify additional object database roots (usually unset)
 167
 168 GIT
 169 ---
 170 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite