Documentation / git-fsck.txton commit Merge branch 'ew/for-each-ref-doc' (108cb77)
   1git-fsck(1)
   2===========
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-fsck - Verifies the connectivity and validity of the objects in the database
   7
   8
   9SYNOPSIS
  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] [<object>*]
  15
  16DESCRIPTION
  17-----------
  18Verifies the connectivity and validity of the objects in the database.
  19
  20OPTIONS
  21-------
  22<object>::
  23        An object to treat as the head of an unreachability trace.
  24+
  25If no objects are given, 'git fsck' defaults to using the
  26index file, all SHA-1 references in `refs` namespace, and all reflogs
  27(unless --no-reflogs is given) as heads.
  28
  29--unreachable::
  30        Print out objects that exist but that aren't reachable from any
  31        of the reference nodes.
  32
  33--[no-]dangling::
  34        Print objects that exist but that are never 'directly' used (default).
  35        `--no-dangling` can be used to omit this information from the output.
  36
  37--root::
  38        Report root nodes.
  39
  40--tags::
  41        Report tags.
  42
  43--cache::
  44        Consider any object recorded in the index also as a head node for
  45        an unreachability trace.
  46
  47--no-reflogs::
  48        Do not consider commits that are referenced only by an
  49        entry in a reflog to be reachable.  This option is meant
  50        only to search for commits that used to be in a ref, but
  51        now aren't, but are still in that corresponding reflog.
  52
  53--full::
  54        Check not just objects in GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY
  55        ($GIT_DIR/objects), but also the ones found in alternate
  56        object pools listed in GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES
  57        or $GIT_DIR/objects/info/alternates,
  58        and in packed Git archives found in $GIT_DIR/objects/pack
  59        and corresponding pack subdirectories in alternate
  60        object pools.  This is now default; you can turn it off
  61        with --no-full.
  62
  63--connectivity-only::
  64        Check only the connectivity of tags, commits and tree objects. By
  65        avoiding to unpack blobs, this speeds up the operation, at the
  66        expense of missing corrupt objects or other problematic issues.
  67
  68--strict::
  69        Enable more strict checking, namely to catch a file mode
  70        recorded with g+w bit set, which was created by older
  71        versions of Git.  Existing repositories, including the
  72        Linux kernel, Git itself, and sparse repository have old
  73        objects that triggers this check, but it is recommended
  74        to check new projects with this flag.
  75
  76--verbose::
  77        Be chatty.
  78
  79--lost-found::
  80        Write dangling objects into .git/lost-found/commit/ or
  81        .git/lost-found/other/, depending on type.  If the object is
  82        a blob, the contents are written into the file, rather than
  83        its object name.
  84
  85--[no-]progress::
  86        Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by
  87        default when it is attached to a terminal, unless
  88        --no-progress or --verbose is specified. --progress forces
  89        progress status even if the standard error stream is not
  90        directed to a terminal.
  91
  92DISCUSSION
  93----------
  94
  95git-fsck tests SHA-1 and general object sanity, and it does full tracking
  96of the resulting reachability and everything else. It prints out any
  97corruption it finds (missing or bad objects), and if you use the
  98'--unreachable' flag it will also print out objects that exist but that
  99aren't reachable from any of the specified head nodes (or the default
 100set, as mentioned above).
 101
 102Any corrupt objects you will have to find in backups or other archives
 103(i.e., you can just remove them and do an 'rsync' with some other site in
 104the hopes that somebody else has the object you have corrupted).
 105
 106Extracted Diagnostics
 107---------------------
 108
 109expect dangling commits - potential heads - due to lack of head information::
 110        You haven't specified any nodes as heads so it won't be
 111        possible to differentiate between un-parented commits and
 112        root nodes.
 113
 114missing sha1 directory '<dir>'::
 115        The directory holding the sha1 objects is missing.
 116
 117unreachable <type> <object>::
 118        The <type> object <object>, isn't actually referred to directly
 119        or indirectly in any of the trees or commits seen. This can
 120        mean that there's another root node that you're not specifying
 121        or that the tree is corrupt. If you haven't missed a root node
 122        then you might as well delete unreachable nodes since they
 123        can't be used.
 124
 125missing <type> <object>::
 126        The <type> object <object>, is referred to but isn't present in
 127        the database.
 128
 129dangling <type> <object>::
 130        The <type> object <object>, is present in the database but never
 131        'directly' used. A dangling commit could be a root node.
 132
 133sha1 mismatch <object>::
 134        The database has an object who's sha1 doesn't match the
 135        database value.
 136        This indicates a serious data integrity problem.
 137
 138Environment Variables
 139---------------------
 140
 141GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY::
 142        used to specify the object database root (usually $GIT_DIR/objects)
 143
 144GIT_INDEX_FILE::
 145        used to specify the index file of the index
 146
 147GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES::
 148        used to specify additional object database roots (usually unset)
 149
 150GIT
 151---
 152Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite