Make the e2fsck man page clear that the -c, -l, and -L options are

never safe to use on a mounted filesystem, and in general, running
e2fsck on mounted filesystems is a bad idea.

diff --git a/e2fsck/ChangeLog b/e2fsck/ChangeLog
index 9b21d2f..ff24b42 100644 (file)
--- a/e2fsck/ChangeLog
+++ b/e2fsck/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2005-06-19  Theodore Ts'o  <tytso@mit.edu>
+
+       * e2fsck.8.in: Make it clear that the -c, -l, and -L options are
+               never safe to use on a mounted filesystem, and in general,
+               running e2fsck on mounted filesystems is a bad idea.
+
 2005-06-16  Theodore Ts'o  <tytso@mit.edu>
 
        * message.c: Add @m (multiply-claimed) and @n (invalid)

diff --git a/e2fsck/e2fsck.8.in b/e2fsck/e2fsck.8.in
index c1b63b6..7012a06 100644 (file)
--- a/e2fsck/e2fsck.8.in
+++ b/e2fsck/e2fsck.8.in
@@ -53,6 +53,25 @@ indicates that further checking is required.
 .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 other way.
 .SH OPTIONS
 .TP
 .B \-a