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Repository checks

Introduced in GitLab 8.7.

Git has a built-in mechanism, git fsck, to verify the integrity of all data committed to a repository. GitLab administrators can trigger such a check for a project via the project page under the admin panel. The checks run asynchronously so it may take a few minutes before the check result is visible on the project admin page. If the checks failed you can see their output on the admin log page under 'repocheck.log'.

NOTE: Note: It is OFF by default because it still causes too many false alarms.

Periodic checks

When enabled, GitLab periodically runs a repository check on all project repositories and wiki repositories in order to detect data corruption. A project will be checked no more than once per month. If any projects fail their repository checks all GitLab administrators will receive an email notification of the situation. This notification is sent out once a week, by default, midnight at the start of Sunday. Repositories with known check failures can be found at /admin/projects?last_repository_check_failed=1.

Disabling periodic checks

You can disable the periodic checks on the 'Settings' page of the admin panel.

What to do if a check failed

If the repository check fails for some repository you should look up the error in repocheck.log:

  • in the admin panel
  • or on disk, see:
    • /var/log/gitlab/gitlab-rails for Omnibus installations
    • /home/git/gitlab/log for installations from source

If the periodic repository check causes false alarms, you can clear all repository check states by navigating to Admin Area > Settings > Repository (/admin/application_settings/repository) and clicking Clear all repository checks.