BORG-CHECK(1)

NAME
borg-check - Check repository consistency

SYNOPSIS

borg [common options] check [options] [REPOSITORY_OR_ARCHIVE]

DESCRIPTION

The check command verifies the consistency of a repository and the corresponding archives.

check --repair is a potentially dangerous function and might lead to data loss (for kinds of corruption it is not capable of dealing with). BE VERY CAREFUL!

First, the underlying repository data files are checked:

    •   For all segments, the segment magic header is checked.

    •   For all objects stored in the segments, all metadata (e.g. CRC and size) and all data is read. The read data is checked by size and CRC. Bit rot and other types of accidental damage can be detected this way.

    •   In repair mode, if an integrity error is detected in a segment, try to recover as many objects from the segment as possible.

    •   In repair mode, make sure that the index is consistent with the data stored in the segments.

    •   If checking a remote repo via ssh:, the repo check is executed on the server without causing significant network traffic.

    •   The repository check can be skipped using the --archives-only option.

Second, the consistency and correctness of the archive metadata is verified:

    •   Is the repo manifest present? If not, it is rebuilt from archive metadata chunks (this requires reading and decrypting of all metadata and data).

    •   Check if archive metadata chunk is present; if not, remove archive from manifest.

    •   For all files (items) in the archive, for all chunks referenced by these files, check if chunk is present. In repair mode, if a chunk is not present, replace it with a same-size replacement chunk of zeroes. If a previously lost chunk reappears (e.g. via a later backup), in repair mode the all-zero replacement chunk will be replaced by the correct chunk. This requires reading of archive and file metadata, but not data.

    •   In repair mode, when all the archives were checked, orphaned chunks are deleted from the repo. One cause of orphaned chunks are input file related errors (like read errors) in the archive creation process.

    •   If checking a remote repo via ssh:, the archive check is executed on the client machine because it requires decryption, and this is always done client-side as key access is needed.

    •   The archive checks can be time consuming; they can be skipped using the --repository-only option.

The --verify-data option will perform a full integrity verification (as opposed to checking the CRC32 of the segment) of data, which means reading the data from the repository, decrypting and decompressing it. This is a cryptographic verification, which will detect (accidental) corruption. For encrypted repositories it is tamper-resistant as well, unless the attacker has access to the keys. It is also very slow.

OPTIONS

See borg-common(1) for common options of Borg commands.

  arguments

    REPOSITORY_OR_ARCHIVE
        repository or archive to check consistency of

  optional arguments

    --repository-only
        only perform repository checks

    --archives-only
        only perform archives checks

    --verify-data
        perform cryptographic archive data integrity verification (conflicts with --repository-only)

    --repair
        attempt to repair any inconsistencies found

    --save-space
        work slower, but using less space

  Archive filters

    -P PREFIX, --prefix PREFIX
        only consider archive names starting with this prefix.

    -a GLOB, --glob-archives GLOB
        only consider archive names matching the glob. sh: rules apply, see "borg help patterns". --prefix and --glob-archives are mutually exclusive.

    --sort-by KEYS
        Comma-separated list of sorting keys; valid keys are: timestamp, name, id; default is: timestamp

    --first N
        consider first N archives after other filters were applied

    --last N
        consider last N archives after other filters were applied

SEE ALSO

borg-common(1)

AUTHOR
The Borg Collective