2 .\" Copyright 2006 by Theodore Ts'o. All Rights Reserved.
3 .\" This file may be copied under the terms of the GNU Public License.
5 .TH e2fsck.conf 5 "@E2FSPROGS_MONTH@ @E2FSPROGS_YEAR@" "E2fsprogs version @E2FSPROGS_VERSION@"
7 e2fsck.conf \- Configuration file for e2fsck
10 is the configuration file for
12 It controls the default behavior of
14 while it is checking ext2 or ext3 filesystems.
18 file uses an INI-style format. Stanzas, or top-level sections, are
19 delimited by square braces: [ ]. Within each section, each line
20 defines a relation, which assigns tags to values, or to a subsection,
21 which contains further relations or subsections.
22 .\" Tags can be assigned multiple values
23 An example of the INI-style format used by this configuration file
38 subtag1 = subtag_value_a
40 subtag1 = subtag_value_b
42 subtag2 = subtag_value_c
52 Comments are delimited by a semicolon (';') or a hash ('#') character
53 at the beginning of the comment, and are terminated by the end of
56 Tags and values must be quoted using double quotes if they contain
57 spaces. Within a quoted string, the standard backslash interpretations
58 apply: "\en" (for the newline character),
59 "\et" (for the tab character), "\eb" (for the backspace character),
60 and "\e\e" (for the backslash character).
62 The following stanzas are used in the
64 file. They will be described in more detail in future sections of this
68 This stanza contains general configuration parameters for
73 This stanza allows the administrator to reconfigure how e2fsck handles
74 various filesystem inconsistencies.
77 This stanza controls when e2fsck will attempt to use scratch files to
78 reduce the need for memory.
79 .SH THE [options] STANZA
80 The following relations are defined in the
85 If this relation is set to a boolean value of true, then if the user
86 interrupts e2fsck using ^C, and the filesystem is not explicitly flagged
87 as containing errors, e2fsck will exit with an exit status of 0 instead
88 of 32. This setting defaults to false.
91 Unfortunately, due to Windows' unfortunate design decision
92 to configure the hardware clock to tick localtime, instead
93 of the more proper and less error-prone UTC time, many
94 users end up in the situation where the system clock is
95 incorrectly set at the time when e2fsck is run.
97 Historically this was usually due to some distributions
98 having buggy init scripts and/or installers that didn't
99 correctly detect this case and take appropriate
100 countermeasures. However, it's still possible, despite the
101 best efforts of init script and installer authors to not be
102 able to detect this misconfiguration, usually due to a
103 buggy or misconfigured virtualization manager or the
104 installer not having access to a network time server
105 during the installation process. So by default, we allow
106 the superblock times to be fudged by up to 24 hours.
107 This can be disabled by setting
110 boolean value of false. This setting defaults to true.
112 .I broken_system_clock
115 program has some hueristics that assume that the system clock is
116 correct. In addition, many system programs make similar assumptions.
117 For example, the UUID library depends on time not going backwards in
118 order for it to be able to make its guarantees about issuing universally
119 unique ID's. Systems with broken system clocks, are well, broken.
120 However, broken system clocks, particularly in embedded systems, do
121 exist. E2fsck will attempt to use hueristics to determine if the time
122 can no tbe trusted; and to skip time-based checks if this is true. If
123 this boolean is set to true, then e2fsck will always assume that the
124 system clock can not be trusted.
126 .I clear_test_fs_flag
127 This boolean relation controls whether or not
130 the test_fs flag if the ext4 filesystem is available on the system. It
133 .I defer_check_on_battery
134 This boolean relation controls whether or not the interval between
135 filesystem checks (either based on time or number of mounts) should
136 be doubled if the system is running on battery. This setting defaults to
139 .I indexed_dir_slack_percentage
142 repacks a indexed directory, reserve the specified percentage of
143 empty space in each leaf nodes so that a few new entries can
144 be added to the directory without splitting leaf nodes, so that
145 the average fill ratio of directories can be maintained at a
146 higher, more efficient level. This relation defaults to 20
148 .SH THE [problems] STANZA
151 stanza names a problem code specified with a leading "0x" followed by
153 The value of the tag is a subsection where the relations in that
154 subsection override the default treatment of that particular problem
157 Note that inappropriate settings in this stanza may cause
159 to behave incorrectly, or even crash. Most system administrators should
160 not be making changes to this section without referring to source code.
162 Within each problem code's subsection, the following tags may be used:
165 This relation allows the message which is printed when this filesystem
166 inconsistency is detected to be overridden.
169 This boolean relation overrides the default behavior controlling
170 whether this filesystem problem should be automatically fixed when
172 is running in preen mode.
175 This boolean relation overrides the default behavior determining
176 whether or not the filesystem will be marked as inconsistent if the user
177 declines to fix the reported problem.
180 This boolean relation overrides whether the default answer for this
181 problem (or question) should be "no".
184 This boolean relation overrides the default behavior controlling
185 whether or not the description for this filesystem problem should
188 is running in preen mode.
191 This boolean relation overrides the default behavior controlling
192 whether or not the description for this filesystem problem should
198 .SH THE [scratch_files] STANZA
199 The following relations are defined in the
204 If the directory named by this relation exists and is writeable, then
205 e2fsck will attempt to use this directory to store scratch files instead
206 of using in-memory data structures.
209 If this relation is set, then in-memory data structures be used if the
210 number of directories in the filesystem are fewer than amount specified.
213 This relation controls whether or not the scratch file directory is used
214 instead of an in-memory data structure for directory information. It
218 This relation controls whether or not the scratch file directory is used
219 instead of an in-memory data structure when tracking inode counts. It
222 The following recipe will prevent e2fsck from aborting during the boot
223 process when a filesystem contains orphaned files. (Of course, this is
224 not always a good idea, since critical files that are needed for the
225 security of the system could potentially end up in lost+found, and
226 starting the system without first having a system administrator check
227 things out may be dangerous.)
236 description = "@u @i %i. "
242 The configuration file for