E2FSCK(8)                                               E2FSCK(8)

NAME
       e2fsck - check a Linux second extended file system

SYNOPSIS
       e2fsck  [  -pacnyrdfvstFSV ] [ -b superblock ] [ -B block-
       size ] [ -l|-L bad_blocks_file ] [ -C fd ] device

DESCRIPTION
       e2fsck is used to check a Linux second extended file  sys-
       tem.

       device is  the  special  file  corresponding to the device
              (e.g /dev/hdXX).

OPTIONS
       -a     This option does the same thing as the  -p  option.
              It is provided for backwards compatibility only; it
              is suggested that people  use  -p  option  whenever
              possible.

       -b superblock
              Instead  of  using  the  normal  superblock, use an
              alternative      superblock      specified       by
              superblock.Thisoptionisnormallyusedwhentheprimary-
              superblock has  been  corrupted;  most  filesystems
              have  primary  superblocks  located at blocks 8193,
              16385, etc.  If an alternative superblock is speci-
              fied  and  the  filesystem is not opened read-only,
              e2fsck will make sure that the  primary  superblock
              is  updated  appropriately  upon  completion of the
              filesystem check.

       -B blocksize
              Normally, e2fsck will search for the superblock  at
              various different block sizes in an attempt to find
              the appropriate block size.   This  search  can  be
              fooled in some cases.  This option forces e2fsck to
              only try locating the superblock  at  a  particular
              blocksize.   If the superblock is not found, e2fsck
              will terminate with a fatal error.

       -c     This option causes e2fsck to run  the  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.

       -C     This  option  causes  e2fsck  to  write  completion
              information to the  specified  file  descriptor  so
              that  the  progress  of the filesystem check can be
              monitored.  This option is typically used  by  pro-
              grams  which are executing e2fsck, although -C 0 is
              a special case which will output a spinning charac-
              ter  which can be useful for users who want to have
              something to watch  while  e2fsck  goes  about  its
              business.

       -d     Print  debugging  output  (useless  unless  you are
              debugging e2fsck).

       -f     Force checking even if the file system seems clean.

       -F     Flush  the filesystem device's buffer caches before
              beginning.  Only really  useful  for  doing  e2fsck
              time trials.

       -l filename
              Add  the  blocks  listed  in  the file specified by
              filename to the list of bad blocks.  The format  of
              this  file  is the same as the one generated by the
              badblocks(8) program.

       -L filename
              Set the bad blocks list to be the  list  of  blocks
              specified by filename.  (This option is the same as
              the -l  option,  except  the  bad  blocks  list  is
              cleared  before  the  blocks listed in the file are
              added to the bad blocks list.)

       -n     Open the filesystem read-only, and assume an answer
              of  ``no''  to  all questions.  Allows e2fsck to be
              used non-interactively.  (Note: if the -c,  -l,  or
              -L  options  are  specified  in  addition to the -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.)

       -p     Automatically  repair  ("preen")  the  file  system
              without any questions.

       -r     This option does nothing at  all;  it  is  provided
              only for backwards compatibility.

       -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 filesys-
              tem is already in the standard  byte-order,  e2fsck
              will take no action.

       -S     This  option will byte-swap the filesystem, regard-
              less of its current byte-order.

       -t     Print timing statistics for e2fsck.  If this option
              is  used  twice,  additional  timing statistics are
              printed on a pass by pass basis.

       -v     Verbose mode.

       -V     Print version information and exit.

       -y     Assume an  answer  of  ``yes''  to  all  questions;
              allows e2fsck to be used non-interactively.

EXIT CODE
       The exit code returned by e2fsck is the sum of the follow-
       ing conditions:
            0    - No errors
            1    - File system errors corrected
            2    - File system errors corrected, system should
                   be rebooted if file system was mounted
            4    - File system errors left uncorrected
            8    - Operational error
            16   - Usage or syntax error
            128  - Shared library error

REPORTING BUGS
       Almost any piece of software will have bugs.  If you  man-
       age  to find a filesystem which causes e2fsck to crash, or
       which e2fsck is unable to repair, please report it to  the
       author.

       Please include as much information as possible in your bug
       report.  Ideally, include a  complete  transcript  of  the
       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 script(1) program is a handy
       way to save the output of e2fsck to a file.

       It is also useful to send the output of dumpe2fs(8).  If a
       specific  inode  or inodes seems to be giving e2fsck trou-
       ble, try running the debugfs(8) command and send the  out-
       put  of the stat(1u) command run on the relevant inode(s).
       If the inode is a directory, the debugfs dump command will
       allow  you to extract the contents of the directory inode,
       which can sent to me after being first run  through  uuen-
       code(1).

       Always  include  the full version string which e2fsck dis-
       plays when it is run, so I know which version you are run-
       ning.

AUTHOR
       This  version  of  e2fsck  was  written  by  Theodore Ts'o
       <tytso@mit.edu>.

SEE ALSO
       mke2fs(8), tune2fs(8), dumpe2fs(8), debugfs(8)

E2fsprogs version 1.14     January 1999                         1