# git-lost-found(1) Manual Page

## NAME

git-lost-found - Recover lost refs that luckily have not yet been pruned

## SYNOPSIS

git-lost-found

## DESCRIPTION

NOTE: this command is deprecated. Use git-fsck(1) with the option --lost-found instead.

Finds dangling commits and tags from the object database, and creates refs to them in the .git/lost-found/ directory. Commits and tags that dereference to commits are stored in .git/lost-found/commit, and other objects are stored in .git/lost-found/other.

## OUTPUT

Prints to standard output the object names and one-line descriptions of any commits or tags found.

## EXAMPLE

Suppose you run git tag -f and mistype the tag to overwrite. The ref to your tag is overwritten, but until you run git prune, the tag itself is still there.

    $ git lost-found
    [1ef2b196d909eed523d4f3c9bf54b78cdd6843c6] GIT 0.99.9c
    ...

Also you can use gitk to browse how any tags found relate to each other.

    $ gitk $(cd .git/lost-found/commit && echo ??*)

After making sure you know which the object is the tag you are looking for, you can reconnect it to your regular .git/refs hierarchy.

    $ git cat-file -t 1ef2b196
    tag
    $ git cat-file tag 1ef2b196
    object fa41bbce8e38c67a218415de6cfa510c7e50032a
    type commit
    tag v0.99.9c
    tagger Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> 1131059594 -0800

    GIT 0.99.9c

    This contains the following changes from the "master" branch, since
    ...
    $ git update-ref refs/tags/not-lost-anymore 1ef2b196
    $ git rev-parse not-lost-anymore
    1ef2b196d909eed523d4f3c9bf54b78cdd6843c6

## Author

Written by Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

## Documentation

Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.

## GIT

Part of the git(7) suite