1 ext2ed - The extended-2 filesystem editor, version 0.1
2 ------------------------------------------------------
4 This is version 0.1 of ext2ed - The extended-2 filesystem editor.
9 ext2ed's documentation consists of three documents:
12 2. Technical overview of the ext2 filesystem.
13 3. The EXT2ED design and implementation document.
15 Those documents are available in the doc directory, in linuxdoc-sgml and
18 The documentation is also available online at:
20 http://tochnapc2.technion.ac.il
22 under the ext2ed section.
27 ext2ed requires the kernel sources and the readline and ncurses packages.
28 Please edit the makefile if you are using an "old" version of ncurses (See the
29 details below) or if gcc can't find the various header files and libraries.
31 To install, simply issue a 'make' command to compile and a 'make install'
32 command to install. I have also included an already compiled linux a.out
38 ext2ed uses the ncurses library for terminal output. It is very important
39 that ncurses will be properly installed on your system:
41 1. Old versions of ncurses (around 1.8.5) need the OLD_NCURSES compile
42 time option in EXT2ED.
44 At least from 1.9.2c, this flag should not be used. I would recommend
45 upgrading the ncurses library to the newer versions.
47 2. ncurses uses its own terminfo database rather then the termcap file.
48 It is important that the terminfo database will be found by ncurses.
49 If this is not the case, you will see on startup some lines which
50 refer to /etc/termcap. This will mean that there is a problem with
51 the terminfo database.
53 3. Newer versions of ncurses (and the 1.3 series of the kernel) describe
54 the linux console in the entry 'linux' and not 'console', as it was
55 before. If you run ext2ed in the linux console, you should either
56 set your TERM environment variable to 'linux' or link
57 l/linux to c/console in the terminfo database.
59 4. The percompiled binary was linked with ncurses 1.9.4 and will search
60 for the terminfo database on /usr/local/lib/terminfo. If you are
61 using it, and your 1.9.4 compatible terminfo database is not on the
62 directory above, use the TERMINFO environment variable to specify
63 an alternate location.
68 For those of you who don't like reading lengthy articles, here are a few
71 1. Don't use ext2ed to change a mounted filesystem !
73 Using ext2ed in read-only mode on a mounted filesystem can be allowed
74 by using the configuration file option 'AllowMountedRead on'. However,
75 note that the displayed data will be unreliable.
77 2. ext2ed currently can't handle filesystems bigger than 2 GB. I am
78 sorry for the inconvenience. This will hopefully be fixed in future
81 3. Before running ext2ed, edit the configuration file
82 /var/lib/ext2ed/ext2ed.conf to suit your needs. The various
83 configuration options are documented there.
85 4. Use the 'setdevice' command to open an ext2 filesystem.
86 e.g. 'setdevice /dev/hda1'.
88 5. If the filesystem is an ext2 filesystem and ext2ed fails to
89 autodetect this, use the 'ForceExt2 on' configuration file option.
91 6. The filesystem will always be opened in read-only mode. Feel free to
92 experiment, but take care with the 'enablewrite' command.
94 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
96 Feel free to send me feedback with anything regarding to ext2ed.
100 Gadi Oxman <tgud@tochnapc2.technion.ac.il>
101 Haifa, August 23 1995