.\" $NetBSD: fsck.8,v 1.19 1999/03/10 00:08:33 erh Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1996 Christos Zoulas. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software .\" must display the following acknowledgement: .\" This product includes software developed by Christos Zoulas. .\" 4. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote products .\" derived from this software without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES .\" OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. .\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, .\" INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT .\" NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, .\" DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY .\" THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT .\" (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF .\" THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" $FreeBSD$ .\" .Dd January 25, 2009 .Dt FSCK 8 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm fsck .Nd file system consistency check and interactive repair .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm .Op Fl Cdfnpvy .Op Fl B | F .Op Fl T Ar fstype : Ns Ar fsoptions .Op Fl t Ar fstype .Op Fl c Ar fstab .Oo Ar special | node Oc ... .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm utility invokes file system-specific programs to check the special devices listed in the .Xr fstab 5 file or in the command line for consistency. .Pp It is normally used in the script .Pa /etc/rc during automatic reboot. Traditionally, .Nm is invoked before the file systems are mounted and all checks are done to completion at that time. If background checking is available, .Nm is invoked twice. It is first invoked at the traditional time, before the file systems are mounted, with the .Fl F flag to do checking on all the file systems that cannot do background checking. It is then invoked a second time, after the system has completed going multiuser, with the .Fl B flag to do checking on all the file systems that can do background checking. Unlike the foreground checking, the background checking is started asynchronously so that other system activity can proceed even on the file systems that are being checked. .Pp If no file systems are specified, .Nm reads the table .Pa /etc/fstab to determine which file systems to check. Only partitions in .Pa /etc/fstab that are mounted .Dq rw , .Dq rq or .Dq ro and that have non-zero pass number are checked. File systems with pass number 1 (normally just the root file system) are always checked one at a time. .Pp If not in preen mode, the remaining entries are checked in order of increasing pass number one at a time. This is needed when interaction with .Nm is required. .Pp In preen mode, after pass 1 completes, all remaining file systems are checked, in pass number order running one process per disk drive in parallel for each pass number in increasing order. .Pp In other words: In preen mode all pass 1 partitions are checked sequentially. Next all pass 2 partitions are checked in parallel, one process per disk drive. Next all pass 3 partitions are checked in parallel, one process per disk drive. etc. .Pp The disk drive containing each file system is inferred from the shortest prefix of the device name that ends in a digit; the remaining characters are assumed to be the partition and slice designators. .Pp The options are as follows: .Bl -tag -width indent .It Fl C Check if the .Dq clean flag is set in the superblock and skip file system checks if file system was properly dismounted and marked clean. .It Fl c Ar fstab Specify the .Pa fstab file to use. .It Fl d Debugging mode. Just print the commands without executing them. Available only if .Nm is compiled to support it. .It Fl f Force checking of file systems, even when they are marked clean (for file systems that support this). .It Fl n Causes .Nm to assume no as the answer to all operator questions, except "CONTINUE?". .It Fl p Enter preen mode. In preen mode, only a restricted class of innocuous file system inconsistencies will be corrected. If unexpected inconsistencies caused by hardware or software failures are encountered, the check program will exit with a failure. See the manual pages for the individual check programs for a list of the sorts of failures that they correct when running in preen mode. .It Fl F Run in foreground mode. The check program for each file system is invoked with the .Fl F flag to determine whether it wishes to run as part of the boot up sequence, or if it is able to do its job in background after the system is up and running. A non-zero exit code indicates that it wants to run in foreground and the check program is invoked. A zero exit code indicates that it is able to run later in background and just a deferred message is printed. .It Fl B Run in background mode. The check program for each file system is invoked with the .Fl F flag to determine whether it wishes to run as part of the boot up sequence, or if it is able to do its job in background after the system is up and running. A non-zero exit code indicates that it wanted to run in foreground which is assumed to have been done, so the file system is skipped. A zero exit code indicates that it is able to run in background so the check program is invoked with the .Fl B flag to indicate that a check on the active file system should be done. When running in background mode, only one file system at a time will be checked. Note that background .Nm is limited to checking for only the most commonly occurring file system abnormalities. Under certain circumstances, some errors can escape background .Nm . It is recommended that you perform foreground .Nm on your systems periodically and whenever you encounter file-system\-related panics. .It Fl t Ar fstype Invoke .Nm only for the comma separated list of file system types. If the list starts with .Dq no then invoke .Nm for the file system types that are not specified in the list. .It Fl v Print the commands before executing them. .It Fl y Causes .Nm to assume yes as the answer to all operator questions. .It Fl T Ar fstype : Ns Ar fsoptions List of comma separated file system specific options for the specified file system type, in the same format as .Xr mount 8 . .El .Sh FILES .Bl -tag -width /etc/fstab -compact .It Pa /etc/fstab file system table .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr fstab 5 , .Xr fsck_ffs 8 , .Xr fsck_msdosfs 8 , .Xr mount 8