fsck.minix (8)

Leading comments

Copyright 1992, 1993, 1994 Rickard E. Faith (faith@cs.unc.edu)
May be freely distributed.

(The comments found at the beginning of the groff file "man8/fsck.minix.8".)

NAME

fsck.minix - check consistency of Minix filesystem

SYNOPSIS

fsck.minix [options] device

DESCRIPTION

fsck.minix performs a consistency check for the Linux MINIX filesystem.

The program assumes the filesystem is quiescent. fsck.minix should not be used on a mounted device unless you can be sure nobody is writing to it. Remember that the kernel can write to device when it searches for files.

The device name will usually have the following form:

/dev/hda[1-63]	IDE disk 1
/dev/hdb[1-63]	IDE disk 2
/dev/sda[1-15]	SCSI disk 1
/dev/sdb[1-15]	SCSI disk 2

If the filesystem was changed, i.e., repaired, then fsck.minix will print "FILE SYSTEM HAS CHANGED" and will sync(2) three times before exiting. There is no need to reboot after check.

WARNING

fsck.minix should not be used on a mounted filesystem. Using fsck.minix on a mounted filesystem is very dangerous, due to the possibility that deleted files are still in use, and can seriously damage a perfectly good filesystem! If you absolutely have to run fsck.minix on a mounted filesystem, such as the root filesystem, make sure nothing is writing to the disk, and that no files are "zombies" waiting for deletion.

OPTIONS

-l, --list

List all filenames.

-r, --repair

Perform interactive repairs.

-a, --auto

Perform automatic repairs. This option implies --repair and serves to answer all of the questions asked with the default. Note that this can be extremely dangerous in the case of extensive filesystem damage.

-v, --verbose

Be verbose.

-s, --super

Output super-block information.

-m, --uncleared

Activate MINIX-like "mode not cleared" warnings.

-f, --force

Force a filesystem check even if the filesystem was marked as valid. Marking is done by the kernel when the filesystem is unmounted.

-V, --version

Display version information and exit.

-h, --help

Display help text and exit.

DIAGNOSTICS

There are numerous diagnostic messages. The ones mentioned here are the most commonly seen in normal usage.

If the device does not exist, fsck.minix will print "unable to read super block". If the device exists, but is not a MINIX filesystem, fsck.minix will print "bad magic number in super-block".

EXIT CODES

The exit code returned by fsck.minix is the sum of the following:

0

No errors

3

Filesystem errors corrected, system should be rebooted if filesystem was mounted

4

Filesystem errors left uncorrected

7

Combination of exit codes 3 and 4

8

Operational error

16

Usage or syntax error

AUTHORS

Linus Torvalds
Error code values by Rik Faith
Added support for filesystem valid flag: Dr. Wettstein
Check to prevent fsck of mounted filesystem added by Daniel Quinlan
Minix v2 fs support by Andreas Schwab updated by Nicolai Langfeldt
Portability patch by Russell King

SEE ALSO

fsck(8), fsck.ext2(8), mkfs(8), mkfs.minix(8), mkfs.ext2(8), reboot(8)

AVAILABILITY

The fsck.minix command is part of the util-linux package and is available from Linux Kernel Archive