.\"
.TH E2FSCK 8 "@E2FSPROGS_MONTH@ @E2FSPROGS_YEAR@" "E2fsprogs version @E2FSPROGS_VERSION@"
.SH NAME
-e2fsck \- check a Linux second extended file system
+e2fsck \- check a Linux ext2/ext3 file system
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B e2fsck
[
-.B \-pacnyrdfvstFSV
+.B \-pacnyrdfkvtDFV
]
[
.B \-b
is used to check a Linux second extended file system (ext2fs).
.B E2fsck
also
-supports ext2 filesystems countaining a journal, which are
+supports ext2 filesystems containing a journal, which are
also sometimes known as ext3 filesystems, by first applying the journal
to the filesystem before continuing with normal
.B e2fsck
.I device
is the device file where the filesystem is stored (e.g.
.IR /dev/hdc1 ).
+.PP
+Note that in general it is not safe to run
+.B e2fsck
+on mounted filesystems. The only exception is if the
+.B \-n
+option is specified, and
+.BR \-c ,
+.BR \-l ,
+or
+.B -L
+options are
+.I not
+specified. However, even if it is safe to do so, the results printed by
+.B e2fsck
+are not valid if the filesystem is mounted. If
+.B e2fsck
+asks whether or not you should check a filesystem which is mounted,
+the only correct answer is ``no''. Only experts who really know what
+they are doing should consider answering this question in any other way.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B \-a
.B \-c
This option causes
.B e2fsck
-to run the
+to use
.BR badblocks (8)
-program to find any blocks which are bad on the filesystem,
-and then marks them as bad by adding them to the bad block inode.
-If this option is specified twice, then the bad block scan will be done
+program to do a read-only scan of the device in order to find any bad
+blocks. If any bad blocks are found, they are added to the bad block
+inode to prevent them from being allocated to a file or directory. If
+this option is specified twice, then the bad block scan will be done
using a non-destructive read-write test.
.TP
-.B \-C
+.BI \-C " fd"
This option causes
.B e2fsck
to write completion information to the specified file descriptor
check can be monitored. This option is typically used by programs
which are running
.BR e2fsck .
+If the file descriptor number is negative, then absolute value of
+the file descriptor will be used, and the progress information will be
+suppressed initially. It can later be enabled by sending the
+.B e2fsck
+process a SIGUSR1 signal.
If the file descriptor specified is 0,
.B e2fsck
will print a completion bar as it goes about its business. This requires
filesystem supports directory indexing, or by sorting and compressing
directories for smaller directories, or for filesystems using
traditional linear directories.
+.IP
+Even without the
+.B \-D
+option,
+.B e2fsck
+may sometimes optimize a few directories --- for example, if
+directory indexing is enabled and a directory is not indexed and would
+benefit from being indexed, or if the index structures are corrupted
+and need to be rebuilt. The
+.B \-D
+option forces all directories in the filesystem to be optimized. This can
+sometimes make them a little smaller and slightly faster to search, but
+in practice, you should rarely need to use this option.
+.IP
+The
+.B \-D
+option will detect directory entries with duplicate names in a single
+directory, which e2fsck normally does not enforce for performance reasons.
.TP
.BI \-E " extended_options"
Set e2fsck extended options. Extended options are comma
.RS 1.2i
.TP
.BI ea_ver= extended_attribute_version
-Assume the format of the extended attribute blocks in the filesystem is
-the specified version number. The version number may be 1 or 2. The
-default extended attribute version format is 2.
+Set the version of the extended attribute blocks which
+.B e2fsck
+will require while checking the filesystem. The version number may
+be 1 or 2. The default extended attribute version format is 2.
+.TP
+.BI fragcheck
+During pass 1, print a detailed report of any discontiguous blocks for
+files in the filesystem.
.RE
.TP
.B \-f
@JDEV@Set the pathname where the external-journal for this filesystem can be
@JDEV@found.
.TP
+.BI \-k
+When combined with the
+.B \-c
+option, any existing bad blocks in the bad blocks list are preserved,
+and any new bad blocks found by running
+.BR badblocks (8)
+will be added to the existing bad blocks list.
+.TP
.BI \-l " filename"
Add the block numbers listed in the file specified by
.I filename
.B \-n
option, then the filesystem will be opened read-write, to permit the
bad-blocks list to be updated. However, no other changes will be made
-to the filesystem.)
+to the filesystem.) This option
+may not be specified at the same time as the
+.B \-p
+or
+.B \-y
+options.
.TP
.B \-p
-Automatically repair ("preen") the file system without any questions.
+Automatically repair ("preen") the file system. This option will cause
+.B e2fsck
+to automatically
+fix any filesystem problems that can be safely fixed without human
+intervention. If
+.B e2fsck
+discovers a problem which may require the system administrator
+to take additional corrective action,
+.B e2fsck
+will print a description of the problem and then exit with the value 4
+logically or'ed into the exit code. (See the \fBEXIT CODE\fR section.)
+This option is normally used by the system's boot scripts. It may not
+be specified at the same time as the
+.B \-n
+or
+.B \-y
+options.
.TP
.B \-r
This option does nothing at all; it is provided only for backwards
compatibility.
-.TP
-.B \-s
-This option will byte-swap the filesystem so that it is using the normalized,
-standard byte-order (which is i386 or little endian). If the filesystem is
-already in the standard byte-order,
-.B e2fsck
-will take no action.
-.TP
-.B \-S
-This option will byte-swap the filesystem, regardless of its current
-byte-order.
.TP
.B \-t
Print timing statistics for
.B \-y
Assume an answer of `yes' to all questions; allows
.B e2fsck
-to be used non-interactively.
+to be used non-interactively. This option
+may not be specified at the same time as the
+.B \-n
+or
+.B \-p
+options.
.SH EXIT CODE
The exit code returned by
.B e2fsck
.B SIGUSR1
This signal causes
.B e2fsck
-to start displaying a completion bar. (See discussion of the
+to start displaying a completion bar or emitting progress information.
+(See discussion of the
.B \-C
option.)
.TP
.B SIGUSR2
This signal causes
.B e2fsck
-to stop displaying a completion bar.
+to stop displaying a completion bar or emitting progress information.
.SH REPORTING BUGS
Almost any piece of software will have bugs. If you manage to find a
filesystem which causes
Please include as much information as possible in your bug report.
Ideally, include a complete transcript of the
.B e2fsck
-run, so I can see exactly what error messages are displayed. If you
-have a writeable filesystem where the transcript can be stored, the
+run, so I can see exactly what error messages are displayed. (Make sure
+the messages printed by
+.B e2fsck
+are in English; if your system has been
+configured so that
+.BR e2fsck 's
+messages have been translated into another language, please set the the
+.B LC_ALL
+environment variable to
+.B C
+so that the transcript of e2fsck's output will be useful to me.)
+If you
+have a writable filesystem where the transcript can be stored, the
.BR script (1)
program is a handy way to save the output of
.B e2fsck
.I dump
command will allow you to extract the contents of the directory inode,
which can sent to me after being first run through
-.BR uuencode (1).
+.BR uuencode (1).
+The most useful data you can send to help reproduce
+the bug is a compressed raw image dump of the filesystem, generated using
+.BR e2image (8).
+See the
+.BR e2image (8)
+man page for more details.
.PP
Always include the full version string which
.B e2fsck
.B e2fsck
was written by Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu>.
.SH SEE ALSO
-.BR mke2fs (8),
-.BR tune2fs (8),
+.BR e2fsck.conf (5),
+.BR badblocks (8),
.BR dumpe2fs (8),
-.BR debugfs (8)
+.BR debugfs (8),
+.BR e2image (8),
+.BR mke2fs (8),
+.BR tune2fs (8)
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