# NAME

git-annex repair - recover broken git repository

# SYNOPSIS

git annex repair

# DESCRIPTION

This can repair many of the problems with git repositories that `git fsck`
detects, but does not itself fix. It's useful if a repository has become
badly damaged. One way this can happen is if a repository used by git-annex
is on a removable drive that gets unplugged at the wrong time.
  
This command can actually be used inside git repositories that do not
use git-annex at all; when used in a repository using git-annex, it
does additional repairs of the git-annex branch.
  
It works by deleting any corrupt objects from the git repository, and
retrieving all missing objects it can from the remotes of the repository.
  
If that is not sufficient to fully recover the repository, it can also
reset branches back to commits before the corruption happened, delete
branches that are no longer available due to the lost data, and remove any
missing files from the index. It will only do this if run with the
`--force` option, since that rewrites history and throws out missing data.
Note that the `--force` option never touches tags, even if they are no
longer usable due to missing data.
  
After running this command, you will probably want to run `git fsck` to
verify it fixed the repository. Note that fsck may still complain about
objects referenced by the reflog, or the stash, if they were unable to be
recovered. This command does not try to clean up either the reflog or the
stash.
  
It is also a good idea to run `git annex fsck --fast` after this command,
to make sure that the git-annex branch reflects reality.

# OPTIONS

* `--force`

  Enable repair actions that involve deleting data that has been
  lost due to git repository corruption.

# SEE ALSO

[[git-annex]](1)

[[git-annex-fsck]](1)

# AUTHOR

Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name>

Warning: Automatically converted into a man page by mdwn2man. Edit with care.
