Documentation / git-fsck.txton commit Revert "git stash: avoid data loss when "git stash save" kills a directory" (c1ebd90)
   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] [<object>*]
  15
  16DESCRIPTION
  17-----------
  18Verifies the connectivity and validity of the objects in the database.
  19
  20OPTIONS
  21-------
  22<object>::
  23        An object to treat as the head of an unreachability trace.
  24+
  25If no objects are given, 'git fsck' defaults to using the
  26index file, all SHA-1 references in `refs` namespace, and all reflogs
  27(unless --no-reflogs is given) as heads.
  28
  29--unreachable::
  30        Print out objects that exist but that aren't reachable from any
  31        of the reference nodes.
  32
  33--[no-]dangling::
  34        Print objects that exist but that are never 'directly' used (default).
  35        `--no-dangling` can be used to omit this information from the output.
  36
  37--root::
  38        Report root nodes.
  39
  40--tags::
  41        Report tags.
  42
  43--cache::
  44        Consider any object recorded in the index also as a head node for
  45        an unreachability trace.
  46
  47--no-reflogs::
  48        Do not consider commits that are referenced only by an
  49        entry in a reflog to be reachable.  This option is meant
  50        only to search for commits that used to be in a ref, but
  51        now aren't, but are still in that corresponding reflog.
  52
  53--full::
  54        Check not just objects in GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY
  55        ($GIT_DIR/objects), but also the ones found in alternate
  56        object pools listed in GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES
  57        or $GIT_DIR/objects/info/alternates,
  58        and in packed Git archives found in $GIT_DIR/objects/pack
  59        and corresponding pack subdirectories in alternate
  60        object pools.  This is now default; you can turn it off
  61        with --no-full.
  62
  63--strict::
  64        Enable more strict checking, namely to catch a file mode
  65        recorded with g+w bit set, which was created by older
  66        versions of Git.  Existing repositories, including the
  67        Linux kernel, Git itself, and sparse repository have old
  68        objects that triggers this check, but it is recommended
  69        to check new projects with this flag.
  70
  71--verbose::
  72        Be chatty.
  73
  74--lost-found::
  75        Write dangling objects into .git/lost-found/commit/ or
  76        .git/lost-found/other/, depending on type.  If the object is
  77        a blob, the contents are written into the file, rather than
  78        its object name.
  79
  80--[no-]progress::
  81        Progress status is reported on the standard error stream by
  82        default when it is attached to a terminal, unless
  83        --no-progress or --verbose is specified. --progress forces
  84        progress status even if the standard error stream is not
  85        directed to a terminal.
  86
  87DISCUSSION
  88----------
  89
  90git-fsck tests SHA-1 and general object sanity, and it does full tracking
  91of the resulting reachability and everything else. It prints out any
  92corruption it finds (missing or bad objects), and if you use the
  93'--unreachable' flag it will also print out objects that exist but that
  94aren't reachable from any of the specified head nodes (or the default
  95set, as mentioned above).
  96
  97Any corrupt objects you will have to find in backups or other archives
  98(i.e., you can just remove them and do an 'rsync' with some other site in
  99the hopes that somebody else has the object you have corrupted).
 100
 101Extracted Diagnostics
 102---------------------
 103
 104expect dangling commits - potential heads - due to lack of head information::
 105        You haven't specified any nodes as heads so it won't be
 106        possible to differentiate between un-parented commits and
 107        root nodes.
 108
 109missing sha1 directory '<dir>'::
 110        The directory holding the sha1 objects is missing.
 111
 112unreachable <type> <object>::
 113        The <type> object <object>, isn't actually referred to directly
 114        or indirectly in any of the trees or commits seen. This can
 115        mean that there's another root node that you're not specifying
 116        or that the tree is corrupt. If you haven't missed a root node
 117        then you might as well delete unreachable nodes since they
 118        can't be used.
 119
 120missing <type> <object>::
 121        The <type> object <object>, is referred to but isn't present in
 122        the database.
 123
 124dangling <type> <object>::
 125        The <type> object <object>, is present in the database but never
 126        'directly' used. A dangling commit could be a root node.
 127
 128sha1 mismatch <object>::
 129        The database has an object who's sha1 doesn't match the
 130        database value.
 131        This indicates a serious data integrity problem.
 132
 133Environment Variables
 134---------------------
 135
 136GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY::
 137        used to specify the object database root (usually $GIT_DIR/objects)
 138
 139GIT_INDEX_FILE::
 140        used to specify the index file of the index
 141
 142GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES::
 143        used to specify additional object database roots (usually unset)
 144
 145GIT
 146---
 147Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite