Provided by: e2fsprogs_1.42.13-1ubuntu1.2_amd64 
NAME
e2fsck - check a Linux ext2/ext3/ext4 file system
SYNOPSIS
e2fsck [ -pacnyrdfkvtDFV ] [ -b superblock ] [ -B blocksize ] [ -l|-L bad_blocks_file ] [ -C fd ] [ -j
external-journal ] [ -E extended_options ] device
DESCRIPTION
e2fsck is used to check the ext2/ext3/ext4 family of file systems. For ext3 and ext4 filesystems that
use a journal, if the system has been shut down uncleanly without any errors, normally, after replaying
the committed transactions in the journal, the file system should be marked as clean. Hence, for
filesystems that use journalling, e2fsck will normally replay the journal and exit, unless its superblock
indicates that further checking is required.
device is the device file where the filesystem is stored (e.g. /dev/hdc1).
Note that in general it is not safe to run e2fsck on mounted filesystems. The only exception is if the
-n option is specified, and -c, -l, or -L options are not specified. However, even if it is safe to do
so, the results printed by e2fsck are not valid if the filesystem is mounted. If 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.
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.
This option is normally used when the primary superblock has been corrupted. The location of the
backup superblock is dependent on the filesystem's blocksize. For filesystems with 1k blocksizes,
a backup superblock can be found at block 8193; for filesystems with 2k blocksizes, at block
16384; and for 4k blocksizes, at block 32768.
Additional backup superblocks can be determined by using the mke2fs program using the -n option to
print out where the superblocks were created. The -b option to mke2fs, which specifies blocksize
of the filesystem must be specified in order for the superblock locations that are printed out to
be accurate.
If an alternative superblock is specified 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 use badblocks(8) 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.
-C fd 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 programs
which are running 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 e2fsck process a SIGUSR1 signal. If the file descriptor specified
is 0, e2fsck will print a completion bar as it goes about its business. This requires that e2fsck
is running on a video console or terminal.
-d Print debugging output (useless unless you are debugging e2fsck).
-D Optimize directories in filesystem. This option causes e2fsck to try to optimize all directories,
either by reindexing them if the filesystem supports directory indexing, or by sorting and
compressing directories for smaller directories, or for filesystems using traditional linear
directories.
Even without the -D option, 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 -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.
The -D option will detect directory entries with duplicate names in a single directory, which
e2fsck normally does not enforce for performance reasons.
-E extended_options
Set e2fsck extended options. Extended options are comma separated, and may take an argument using
the equals ('=') sign. The following options are supported:
ea_ver=extended_attribute_version
Set the version of the extended attribute blocks which e2fsck will require while
checking the filesystem. The version number may be 1 or 2. The default extended
attribute version format is 2.
journal_only
Only replay the journal if required, but do not perform any further checks or repairs.
fragcheck
During pass 1, print a detailed report of any discontiguous blocks for files in the
filesystem.
discard
Attempt to discard free blocks and unused inode blocks after the full filesystem check
(discarding blocks is useful on solid state devices and sparse / thin-provisioned
storage). Note that discard is done in pass 5 AFTER the filesystem has been fully
checked and only if it does not contain recognizable errors. However there might be
cases where e2fsck does not fully recognize a problem and hence in this case this
option may prevent you from further manual data recovery.
nodiscard
Do not attempt to discard free blocks and unused inode blocks. This option is exactly
the opposite of discard option. This is set as default.
-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.
-j external-journal
Set the pathname where the external-journal for this filesystem can be found.
-k When combined with the -c option, any existing bad blocks in the bad blocks list are preserved,
and any new bad blocks found by running badblocks(8) will be added to the existing bad blocks
list.
-l filename
Add the block numbers 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. Note that the
block numbers are based on the blocksize of the filesystem. Hence, badblocks(8) must be given the
blocksize of the filesystem in order to obtain correct results. As a result, it is much simpler
and safer to use the -c option to e2fsck, since it will assure that the correct parameters are
passed to the badblocks 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. This option may not be specified at the same time as the -p or -y
options.
-p Automatically repair ("preen") the file system. This option will cause e2fsck to automatically
fix any filesystem problems that can be safely fixed without human intervention. If e2fsck
discovers a problem which may require the system administrator to take additional corrective
action, e2fsck will print a description of the problem and then exit with the value 4 logically
or'ed into the exit code. (See the EXIT CODE section.) This option is normally used by the
system's boot scripts. It may not be specified at the same time as the -n or -y options.
-r This option does nothing at all; it is provided only for backwards compatibility.
-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. This
option may not be specified at the same time as the -n or -p options.
EXIT CODE
The exit code returned by e2fsck is the sum of the following conditions:
0 - No errors
1 - File system errors corrected
2 - File system errors corrected, system should
be rebooted
4 - File system errors left uncorrected
8 - Operational error
16 - Usage or syntax error
32 - E2fsck canceled by user request
128 - Shared library error
SIGNALS
The following signals have the following effect when sent to e2fsck.
SIGUSR1
This signal causes e2fsck to start displaying a completion bar or emitting progress information.
(See discussion of the -C option.)
SIGUSR2
This signal causes e2fsck to stop displaying a completion bar or emitting progress information.
REPORTING BUGS
Almost any piece of software will have bugs. If you manage 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. (Make sure the
messages printed by e2fsck are in English; if your system has been configured so that e2fsck's messages
have been translated into another language, please set the the LC_ALL environment variable to 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 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 trouble, try running the debugfs(8) command and send the output 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 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 e2image(8). See the e2image(8) man page for more details.
Always include the full version string which e2fsck displays when it is run, so I know which version you
are running.
AUTHOR
This version of e2fsck was written by Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu>.
SEE ALSO
e2fsck.conf(5), badblocks(8), dumpe2fs(8), debugfs(8), e2image(8), mke2fs(8), tune2fs(8)