Documentation / git-fsck-objects.txton commit builtin-grep: use external grep when we can take advantage of it (1e2398d)
   1git-fsck-objects(1)
   2===================
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-fsck-objects - Verifies the connectivity and validity of the objects in the database
   7
   8
   9SYNOPSIS
  10--------
  11[verse]
  12'git-fsck-objects' [--tags] [--root] [--unreachable] [--cache]
  13                 [--full] [--strict] [<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-objects defaults to using the
  25index file and all SHA1 references in .git/refs/* as heads.
  26
  27--unreachable::
  28        Print out objects that exist but that aren't readable from any
  29        of the reference nodes.
  30
  31--root::
  32        Report root nodes.
  33
  34--tags::
  35        Report tags.
  36
  37--cache::
  38        Consider any object recorded in the index also as a head node for
  39        an unreachability trace.
  40
  41--full::
  42        Check not just objects in GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY
  43        ($GIT_DIR/objects), but also the ones found in alternate
  44        object pools listed in GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES
  45        or $GIT_DIR/objects/info/alternates,
  46        and in packed git archives found in $GIT_DIR/objects/pack
  47        and corresponding pack subdirectories in alternate
  48        object pools.
  49
  50--strict::
  51        Enable more strict checking, namely to catch a file mode
  52        recorded with g+w bit set, which was created by older
  53        versions of git.  Existing repositories, including the
  54        Linux kernel, git itself, and sparse repository have old
  55        objects that triggers this check, but it is recommended
  56        to check new projects with this flag.
  57
  58It tests SHA1 and general object sanity, and it does full tracking of
  59the resulting reachability and everything else. It prints out any
  60corruption it finds (missing or bad objects), and if you use the
  61'--unreachable' flag it will also print out objects that exist but
  62that aren't readable from any of the specified head nodes.
  63
  64So for example
  65
  66        git-fsck-objects --unreachable HEAD $(cat .git/refs/heads/*)
  67
  68will do quite a _lot_ of verification on the tree. There are a few
  69extra validity tests to be added (make sure that tree objects are
  70sorted properly etc), but on the whole if "git-fsck-objects" is happy, you
  71do have a valid tree.
  72
  73Any corrupt objects you will have to find in backups or other archives
  74(ie you can just remove them and do an "rsync" with some other site in
  75the hopes that somebody else has the object you have corrupted).
  76
  77Of course, "valid tree" doesn't mean that it wasn't generated by some
  78evil person, and the end result might be crap. git is a revision
  79tracking system, not a quality assurance system ;)
  80
  81Extracted Diagnostics
  82---------------------
  83
  84expect dangling commits - potential heads - due to lack of head information::
  85        You haven't specified any nodes as heads so it won't be
  86        possible to differentiate between un-parented commits and
  87        root nodes.
  88
  89missing sha1 directory '<dir>'::
  90        The directory holding the sha1 objects is missing.
  91
  92unreachable <type> <object>::
  93        The <type> object <object>, isn't actually referred to directly
  94        or indirectly in any of the trees or commits seen. This can
  95        mean that there's another root node that you're not specifying
  96        or that the tree is corrupt. If you haven't missed a root node
  97        then you might as well delete unreachable nodes since they
  98        can't be used.
  99
 100missing <type> <object>::
 101        The <type> object <object>, is referred to but isn't present in
 102        the database.
 103
 104dangling <type> <object>::
 105        The <type> object <object>, is present in the database but never
 106        'directly' used. A dangling commit could be a root node.
 107
 108warning: git-fsck-objects: tree <tree> has full pathnames in it::
 109        And it shouldn't...
 110
 111sha1 mismatch <object>::
 112        The database has an object who's sha1 doesn't match the
 113        database value.
 114        This indicates a serious data integrity problem.
 115
 116Environment Variables
 117---------------------
 118
 119GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY::
 120        used to specify the object database root (usually $GIT_DIR/objects)
 121
 122GIT_INDEX_FILE::
 123        used to specify the index file of the index
 124
 125GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES::
 126        used to specify additional object database roots (usually unset)
 127
 128Author
 129------
 130Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 131
 132Documentation
 133--------------
 134Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 135
 136GIT
 137---
 138Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
 139