Documentation / git-fsck.txton commit Teach fast-import to recursively copy files/directories (b6f3481)
   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] [--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 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
  67--lost-found::
  68        Write dangling refs into .git/lost-found/commit/ or
  69        .git/lost-found/other/, depending on type.
  70
  71It tests SHA1 and general object sanity, and it does full tracking of
  72the resulting reachability and everything else. It prints out any
  73corruption it finds (missing or bad objects), and if you use the
  74'--unreachable' flag it will also print out objects that exist but
  75that aren't readable from any of the specified head nodes.
  76
  77So for example
  78
  79        git-fsck --unreachable HEAD $(cat .git/refs/heads/*)
  80
  81will do quite a _lot_ of verification on the tree. There are a few
  82extra validity tests to be added (make sure that tree objects are
  83sorted properly etc), but on the whole if "git-fsck" is happy, you
  84do have a valid tree.
  85
  86Any corrupt objects you will have to find in backups or other archives
  87(i.e., you can just remove them and do an "rsync" with some other site in
  88the hopes that somebody else has the object you have corrupted).
  89
  90Of course, "valid tree" doesn't mean that it wasn't generated by some
  91evil person, and the end result might be crap. git is a revision
  92tracking system, not a quality assurance system ;)
  93
  94Extracted Diagnostics
  95---------------------
  96
  97expect dangling commits - potential heads - due to lack of head information::
  98        You haven't specified any nodes as heads so it won't be
  99        possible to differentiate between un-parented commits and
 100        root nodes.
 101
 102missing sha1 directory '<dir>'::
 103        The directory holding the sha1 objects is missing.
 104
 105unreachable <type> <object>::
 106        The <type> object <object>, isn't actually referred to directly
 107        or indirectly in any of the trees or commits seen. This can
 108        mean that there's another root node that you're not specifying
 109        or that the tree is corrupt. If you haven't missed a root node
 110        then you might as well delete unreachable nodes since they
 111        can't be used.
 112
 113missing <type> <object>::
 114        The <type> object <object>, is referred to but isn't present in
 115        the database.
 116
 117dangling <type> <object>::
 118        The <type> object <object>, is present in the database but never
 119        'directly' used. A dangling commit could be a root node.
 120
 121warning: git-fsck: tree <tree> has full pathnames in it::
 122        And it shouldn't...
 123
 124sha1 mismatch <object>::
 125        The database has an object who's sha1 doesn't match the
 126        database value.
 127        This indicates a serious data integrity problem.
 128
 129Environment Variables
 130---------------------
 131
 132GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY::
 133        used to specify the object database root (usually $GIT_DIR/objects)
 134
 135GIT_INDEX_FILE::
 136        used to specify the index file of the index
 137
 138GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES::
 139        used to specify additional object database roots (usually unset)
 140
 141Author
 142------
 143Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 144
 145Documentation
 146--------------
 147Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 148
 149GIT
 150---
 151Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite