Documentation / git-fsck.txton commit Merge branch 'jk/rev-parse-symbolic-parents-fix' into maint (7b0490f)
   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]
  15         [--[no-]name-objects] [<object>*]
  16
  17DESCRIPTION
  18-----------
  19Verifies the connectivity and validity of the objects in the database.
  20
  21OPTIONS
  22-------
  23<object>::
  24        An object to treat as the head of an unreachability trace.
  25+
  26If no objects are given, 'git fsck' defaults to using the
  27index 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 tags, commits and tree objects. By
  66        avoiding to unpack blobs, this speeds up the operation, at the
  67        expense of missing corrupt objects or other problematic issues.
  68
  69--strict::
  70        Enable more strict checking, namely to catch a file mode
  71        recorded with g+w bit set, which was created by older
  72        versions of Git.  Existing repositories, including the
  73        Linux kernel, Git itself, and sparse repository have old
  74        objects that triggers this check, but it is recommended
  75        to check new projects with this flag.
  76
  77--verbose::
  78        Be chatty.
  79
  80--lost-found::
  81        Write dangling objects into .git/lost-found/commit/ or
  82        .git/lost-found/other/, depending on type.  If the object is
  83        a blob, the contents are written into the file, rather than
  84        its object name.
  85
  86--name-objects::
  87        When displaying names of reachable objects, in addition to the
  88        SHA-1 also display a name that describes *how* they are reachable,
  89        compatible with linkgit:git-rev-parse[1], e.g.
  90        `HEAD@{1234567890}~25^2:src/`.
  91
  92--[no-]progress::
  93        Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by
  94        default when it is attached to a terminal, unless
  95        --no-progress or --verbose is specified. --progress forces
  96        progress status even if the standard error stream is not
  97        directed to a terminal.
  98
  99DISCUSSION
 100----------
 101
 102git-fsck tests SHA-1 and general object sanity, and it does full tracking
 103of the resulting reachability and everything else. It prints out any
 104corruption it finds (missing or bad objects), and if you use the
 105`--unreachable` flag it will also print out objects that exist but that
 106aren't reachable from any of the specified head nodes (or the default
 107set, as mentioned above).
 108
 109Any corrupt objects you will have to find in backups or other archives
 110(i.e., you can just remove them and do an 'rsync' with some other site in
 111the hopes that somebody else has the object you have corrupted).
 112
 113Extracted Diagnostics
 114---------------------
 115
 116expect dangling commits - potential heads - due to lack of head information::
 117        You haven't specified any nodes as heads so it won't be
 118        possible to differentiate between un-parented commits and
 119        root nodes.
 120
 121missing sha1 directory '<dir>'::
 122        The directory holding the sha1 objects is missing.
 123
 124unreachable <type> <object>::
 125        The <type> object <object>, isn't actually referred to directly
 126        or indirectly in any of the trees or commits seen. This can
 127        mean that there's another root node that you're not specifying
 128        or that the tree is corrupt. If you haven't missed a root node
 129        then you might as well delete unreachable nodes since they
 130        can't be used.
 131
 132missing <type> <object>::
 133        The <type> object <object>, is referred to but isn't present in
 134        the database.
 135
 136dangling <type> <object>::
 137        The <type> object <object>, is present in the database but never
 138        'directly' used. A dangling commit could be a root node.
 139
 140sha1 mismatch <object>::
 141        The database has an object who's sha1 doesn't match the
 142        database value.
 143        This indicates a serious data integrity problem.
 144
 145Environment Variables
 146---------------------
 147
 148GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY::
 149        used to specify the object database root (usually $GIT_DIR/objects)
 150
 151GIT_INDEX_FILE::
 152        used to specify the index file of the index
 153
 154GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES::
 155        used to specify additional object database roots (usually unset)
 156
 157GIT
 158---
 159Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite