Back to main site | Back to man page index

GIT-FSCK(1)                                           Git Manual                                          GIT-FSCK(1)



NAME
       git-fsck - Verifies the connectivity and validity of the objects in the database

SYNOPSIS
       git fsck [--tags] [--root] [--unreachable] [--cache] [--no-reflogs]
                [--[no-]full] [--strict] [--verbose] [--lost-found]
                [--[no-]dangling] [--[no-]progress] [<object>*]


DESCRIPTION
       Verifies the connectivity and validity of the objects in the database.

OPTIONS
       <object>
           An object to treat as the head of an unreachability trace.

           If no objects are given, git fsck defaults to using the index file, all SHA-1 references in refs
           namespace, and all reflogs (unless --no-reflogs is given) as heads.

       --unreachable
           Print out objects that exist but that aren’t reachable from any of the reference nodes.

       --[no-]dangling
           Print objects that exist but that are never directly used (default).  --no-dangling can be used to omit
           this information from the output.

       --root
           Report root nodes.

       --tags
           Report tags.

       --cache
           Consider any object recorded in the index also as a head node for an unreachability trace.

       --no-reflogs
           Do not consider commits that are referenced only by an entry in a reflog to be reachable. This option is
           meant only to search for commits that used to be in a ref, but now aren’t, but are still in that
           corresponding reflog.

       --full
           Check not just objects in GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY ($GIT_DIR/objects), but also the ones found in alternate
           object pools listed in GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES or $GIT_DIR/objects/info/alternates, and in packed
           Git archives found in $GIT_DIR/objects/pack and corresponding pack subdirectories in alternate object
           pools. This is now default; you can turn it off with --no-full.

       --strict
           Enable more strict checking, namely to catch a file mode recorded with g+w bit set, which was created by
           older versions of Git. Existing repositories, including the Linux kernel, Git itself, and sparse
           repository have old objects that triggers this check, but it is recommended to check new projects with
           this flag.

       --verbose
           Be chatty.

       --lost-found
       specified head nodes (or the default set, as mentioned above).

       Any corrupt objects you will have to find in backups or other archives (i.e., you can just remove them and do
       an rsync with some other site in the hopes that somebody else has the object you have corrupted).

EXTRACTED DIAGNOSTICS
       expect dangling commits - potential heads - due to lack of head information
           You haven’t specified any nodes as heads so it won’t be possible to differentiate between un-parented
           commits and root nodes.

       missing sha1 directory <dir>
           The directory holding the sha1 objects is missing.

       unreachable <type> <object>
           The <type> object <object>, isn’t actually referred to directly or indirectly in any of the trees or
           commits seen. This can mean that there’s another root node that you’re not specifying or that the tree is
           corrupt. If you haven’t missed a root node then you might as well delete unreachable nodes since they
           can’t be used.

       missing <type> <object>
           The <type> object <object>, is referred to but isn’t present in the database.

       dangling <type> <object>
           The <type> object <object>, is present in the database but never directly used. A dangling commit could be
           a root node.

       sha1 mismatch <object>
           The database has an object who’s sha1 doesn’t match the database value. This indicates a serious data
           integrity problem.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY
           used to specify the object database root (usually $GIT_DIR/objects)

       GIT_INDEX_FILE
           used to specify the index file of the index

       GIT_ALTERNATE_OBJECT_DIRECTORIES
           used to specify additional object database roots (usually unset)

GIT
       Part of the git(1) suite



Git 1.8.3.1                                           03/23/2016                                          GIT-FSCK(1)