Documentation / git-fsck.txton commit Merge branch 'maint-1.7.7' into maint (113e828)
   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] [<object>*]
  14
  15DESCRIPTION
  16-----------
  17Verifies the connectivity and validity of the objects in the database.
  18
  19OPTIONS
  20-------
  21<object>::
  22        An object to treat as the head of an unreachability trace.
  23+
  24If no objects are given, 'git fsck' defaults to using the
  25index file, all SHA1 references in .git/refs/*, and all reflogs (unless
  26--no-reflogs is given) as heads.
  27
  28--unreachable::
  29        Print out objects that exist but that aren't reachable from any
  30        of the reference nodes.
  31
  32--root::
  33        Report root nodes.
  34
  35--tags::
  36        Report tags.
  37
  38--cache::
  39        Consider any object recorded in the index also as a head node for
  40        an unreachability trace.
  41
  42--no-reflogs::
  43        Do not consider commits that are referenced only by an
  44        entry in a reflog to be reachable.  This option is meant
  45        only to search for commits that used to be in a ref, but
  46        now aren't, but are still in that corresponding reflog.
  47
  48--full::
  49        Check not just objects in GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY
  50        ($GIT_DIR/objects), but also the ones found in alternate
  51        object pools listed in GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES
  52        or $GIT_DIR/objects/info/alternates,
  53        and in packed git archives found in $GIT_DIR/objects/pack
  54        and corresponding pack subdirectories in alternate
  55        object pools.  This is now default; you can turn it off
  56        with --no-full.
  57
  58--strict::
  59        Enable more strict checking, namely to catch a file mode
  60        recorded with g+w bit set, which was created by older
  61        versions of git.  Existing repositories, including the
  62        Linux kernel, git itself, and sparse repository have old
  63        objects that triggers this check, but it is recommended
  64        to check new projects with this flag.
  65
  66--verbose::
  67        Be chatty.
  68
  69--lost-found::
  70        Write dangling objects into .git/lost-found/commit/ or
  71        .git/lost-found/other/, depending on type.  If the object is
  72        a blob, the contents are written into the file, rather than
  73        its object name.
  74
  75DISCUSSION
  76----------
  77
  78git-fsck tests SHA1 and general object sanity, and it does full tracking
  79of the resulting reachability and everything else. It prints out any
  80corruption it finds (missing or bad objects), and if you use the
  81'--unreachable' flag it will also print out objects that exist but that
  82aren't reachable from any of the specified head nodes (or the default
  83set, as mentioned above).
  84
  85Any corrupt objects you will have to find in backups or other archives
  86(i.e., you can just remove them and do an 'rsync' with some other site in
  87the hopes that somebody else has the object you have corrupted).
  88
  89Extracted Diagnostics
  90---------------------
  91
  92expect dangling commits - potential heads - due to lack of head information::
  93        You haven't specified any nodes as heads so it won't be
  94        possible to differentiate between un-parented commits and
  95        root nodes.
  96
  97missing sha1 directory '<dir>'::
  98        The directory holding the sha1 objects is missing.
  99
 100unreachable <type> <object>::
 101        The <type> object <object>, isn't actually referred to directly
 102        or indirectly in any of the trees or commits seen. This can
 103        mean that there's another root node that you're not specifying
 104        or that the tree is corrupt. If you haven't missed a root node
 105        then you might as well delete unreachable nodes since they
 106        can't be used.
 107
 108missing <type> <object>::
 109        The <type> object <object>, is referred to but isn't present in
 110        the database.
 111
 112dangling <type> <object>::
 113        The <type> object <object>, is present in the database but never
 114        'directly' used. A dangling commit could be a root node.
 115
 116sha1 mismatch <object>::
 117        The database has an object who's sha1 doesn't match the
 118        database value.
 119        This indicates a serious data integrity problem.
 120
 121Environment Variables
 122---------------------
 123
 124GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY::
 125        used to specify the object database root (usually $GIT_DIR/objects)
 126
 127GIT_INDEX_FILE::
 128        used to specify the index file of the index
 129
 130GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES::
 131        used to specify additional object database roots (usually unset)
 132
 133GIT
 134---
 135Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite