Documentation / git-fsck.txton commit Document git log --full-diff (2e88c26)
   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                 [--full] [--strict] [--verbose] [<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 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--no-reflogs::
  42        Do not consider commits that are referenced only by an
  43        entry in a reflog to be reachable.  This option is meant
  44        only to search for commits that used to be in a ref, but
  45        now aren't, but are still in that corresponding reflog.
  46
  47--full::
  48        Check not just objects in GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY
  49        ($GIT_DIR/objects), but also the ones found in alternate
  50        object pools listed in GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES
  51        or $GIT_DIR/objects/info/alternates,
  52        and in packed git archives found in $GIT_DIR/objects/pack
  53        and corresponding pack subdirectories in alternate
  54        object pools.
  55
  56--strict::
  57        Enable more strict checking, namely to catch a file mode
  58        recorded with g+w bit set, which was created by older
  59        versions of git.  Existing repositories, including the
  60        Linux kernel, git itself, and sparse repository have old
  61        objects that triggers this check, but it is recommended
  62        to check new projects with this flag.
  63
  64--verbose::
  65        Be chatty.
  66
  67It tests SHA1 and general object sanity, and it does full tracking of
  68the resulting reachability and everything else. It prints out any
  69corruption it finds (missing or bad objects), and if you use the
  70'--unreachable' flag it will also print out objects that exist but
  71that aren't readable from any of the specified head nodes.
  72
  73So for example
  74
  75        git-fsck --unreachable HEAD $(cat .git/refs/heads/*)
  76
  77will do quite a _lot_ of verification on the tree. There are a few
  78extra validity tests to be added (make sure that tree objects are
  79sorted properly etc), but on the whole if "git-fsck" is happy, you
  80do have a valid tree.
  81
  82Any corrupt objects you will have to find in backups or other archives
  83(i.e., you can just remove them and do an "rsync" with some other site in
  84the hopes that somebody else has the object you have corrupted).
  85
  86Of course, "valid tree" doesn't mean that it wasn't generated by some
  87evil person, and the end result might be crap. git is a revision
  88tracking system, not a quality assurance system ;)
  89
  90Extracted Diagnostics
  91---------------------
  92
  93expect dangling commits - potential heads - due to lack of head information::
  94        You haven't specified any nodes as heads so it won't be
  95        possible to differentiate between un-parented commits and
  96        root nodes.
  97
  98missing sha1 directory '<dir>'::
  99        The directory holding the sha1 objects is missing.
 100
 101unreachable <type> <object>::
 102        The <type> object <object>, isn't actually referred to directly
 103        or indirectly in any of the trees or commits seen. This can
 104        mean that there's another root node that you're not specifying
 105        or that the tree is corrupt. If you haven't missed a root node
 106        then you might as well delete unreachable nodes since they
 107        can't be used.
 108
 109missing <type> <object>::
 110        The <type> object <object>, is referred to but isn't present in
 111        the database.
 112
 113dangling <type> <object>::
 114        The <type> object <object>, is present in the database but never
 115        'directly' used. A dangling commit could be a root node.
 116
 117warning: git-fsck: tree <tree> has full pathnames in it::
 118        And it shouldn't...
 119
 120sha1 mismatch <object>::
 121        The database has an object who's sha1 doesn't match the
 122        database value.
 123        This indicates a serious data integrity problem.
 124
 125Environment Variables
 126---------------------
 127
 128GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY::
 129        used to specify the object database root (usually $GIT_DIR/objects)
 130
 131GIT_INDEX_FILE::
 132        used to specify the index file of the index
 133
 134GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES::
 135        used to specify additional object database roots (usually unset)
 136
 137Author
 138------
 139Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 140
 141Documentation
 142--------------
 143Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 144
 145GIT
 146---
 147Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite