X-Git-Url: https://git.whamcloud.com/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=misc%2Fe2image.8.in;h=a0300b447cc5ec8312f8b832620852e70e783cb5;hb=f203bbdbec396e3279bf249ae9be96e6b00bf6f2;hp=29bce7150f2bd1d242559ba4593cab5944c64741;hpb=7b921b9ab9131346db7467b1e0a955859685c744;p=tools%2Fe2fsprogs.git diff --git a/misc/e2image.8.in b/misc/e2image.8.in index 29bce71..a0300b4 100644 --- a/misc/e2image.8.in +++ b/misc/e2image.8.in @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ .\" .TH E2IMAGE 8 "@E2FSPROGS_MONTH@ @E2FSPROGS_YEAR@" "E2fsprogs version @E2FSPROGS_VERSION@" .SH NAME -e2image \- Save critical ext2/ext3 filesystem data to a file +e2image \- Save critical ext2/ext3 filesystem metadata to a file .SH SYNOPSIS .B e2image [ @@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ e2image \- Save critical ext2/ext3 filesystem data to a file .SH DESCRIPTION The .B e2image -program will save critical filesystem data on the ext2 filesystem located on +program will save critical ext2 or ext3 filesystem metadata located on .I device to a file specified by .IR image-file . @@ -25,8 +25,8 @@ and .BR debugfs , by using the .B \-i -option to those programs. This can be used by an expert in assisting -the recovery of catastrophically corrupted filesystems. In the future, +option to those programs. This can assist an expert in +recovering catastrophically corrupted filesystems. In the future, e2fsck will be enhanced to be able to use the image file to help recover a badly damaged filesystem. .PP @@ -37,22 +37,21 @@ is \-, then the output of will be sent to standard output, so that the output can be piped to another program, such as .BR gzip (1). -(Note that is currently only supported when +(Note that this is currently only supported when creating a raw image file using the .B \-r option, since the process of creating a normal image file currently -requires random-access access to the file, which can not be done using a +requires random access to the file, which cannot be done using a pipe. This restriction will hopefully be lifted in a future version of .BR e2image .) .PP -It is a very good idea to periodically (at boot time and -every week or so) to create image files for all of -filesystems on a system, as well as saving the partition -layout (which can be generated using the using +It is a very good idea to create image files for all of +filesystems on a system and save the partition +layout (which can be generated using the .B fdisk \-l -command). Ideally the image file should be stored on some filesystem -other that -the filesystem whose data it contains, to ensure that its data is +command) at regular intervals --- at boot time, and/or every week or so. +The image file should be stored on some filesystem other than +the filesystem whose data it contains, to ensure that this data is accessible in the case where the filesystem has been badly damaged. .PP To save disk space, @@ -62,13 +61,13 @@ Hence, if the image file needs to be copied to another location, it should either be compressed first or copied using the .B \-\-sparse=always -option to GNU version of +option to the GNU version of .BR cp . .PP The size of an ext2 image file depends primarily on the size of the filesystems and how many inodes are in use. For a typical 10 gigabyte filesystem, with 200,000 inodes in use out of 1.2 million inodes, the -image file be approximately 35 megabytes; a 4 gigabyte filesystem with +image file will be approximately 35 megabytes; a 4 gigabyte filesystem with 15,000 inodes in use out of 550,000 inodes will result in a 3 megabyte image file. Image files tend to be quite compressible; an image file taking up 32 megabytes of space on @@ -85,7 +84,7 @@ back to the device in emergency situations. .B WARNING!!!! The .B \-I -option should only be used as desperation measure when other +option should only be used as a desperation measure when other alternatives have failed. If the filesystem has changed since the image file was created, data .B will @@ -109,9 +108,9 @@ filesystem itself!) Secondly, the raw image file also includes indirect blocks and directory blocks, which the standard image file does not have, although this may change in the future. .PP -Raw image files are sometimes used when sending filesystems to as part -of bug reports to e2fsprogs. When used in this capacity, the -recommended command is (replace hda1 with appropriate device): +Raw image files are sometimes used when sending filesystems to the maintainer +as part of bug reports to e2fsprogs. When used in this capacity, the +recommended command is as follows (replace hda1 with the appropriate device): .PP .br \ \fBe2image \-r /dev/hda1 \- | bzip2 > hda1.e2i.bz2\fR @@ -124,7 +123,11 @@ may wish to keep confidential. To address this concern, the option can be specified. This will cause .B e2image to scramble directory entries and zero out any unused portions -of the directory blocks before writing them to the image file. +of the directory blocks before writing the image file. However, +the +.B \-s +option will prevent analysis of problems related to hash-tree indexed +directories. .PP .SH AUTHOR .B e2image