66

What is the meaning in behind the fsck command name?

The documentation of the command does not seem to mention what the name stands for.

Pang
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Maic López Sáenz
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  • When you are going to use `fsck` it's because things are **really** messed up, but they can't swear in git commands so they replaced a vowel with an `s` – eric Jun 02 '23 at 21:44

2 Answers2

73

It stands for File System ChecK. The name is taken from the Unix fsck command, which is used to validate a file system.

While Git is not technically a file system, it can be used analogously and the command name is a metaphor on this.

Barmar
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    @LopSae, note that Git originally was envisioned as a versioned file system, and only subsequently grew into a full-fledged DVCS. – kostix Jan 16 '14 at 08:44
  • I had to scroll down to the other answer, which does a bit better job in explaining it. This answer is no good. – Vlastimil Burián Mar 01 '20 at 00:30
  • Git was not in fact ever a file system, as it required one to function, but rather a DVCS made from the perspective of a file system, which made it much fasyer – circl Sep 17 '22 at 21:03
  • @circl True, but like many computer-related terms, it's metaphorical. – Barmar Sep 18 '22 at 13:37
38

It was first called:

  • fsck-cached (git 0.99), to check the repository for errors
  • then fsck-objects (git 0.99.8), in order to report what exactly is wrong with the object, instead of an ambiguous 'bad sha1 file'.
  • and finally git fsck (git 1.5.0, January 2007)

It reflects that Git was initially built as a file system, with a graph of nodes and git fsck is presented in this GitHub Training as a file system check which verifies integrity and finds corrupt objects.

VonC
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