NAME
fsck.minix - a file system consistency checker for Linux
SYNOPSIS
fsck.minix [-larvsmf] device
DESCRIPTION
fsck.minix performs a consistency check for the Linux MINIX filesystem.
The current version supports the 14 character and 30 character filename
options.
The program assumes the file system is quiescent. fsck.minix should
not be used on a mounted device unless you can be sure nobody is
writing to it (and remember that the kernel can write to it when it
searches for files).
The device 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 file system was changed (i.e., repaired), then fsck.minix will
print "FILE SYSTEM HAS CHANGED" and will sync(2) three times before
exiting. Since Linux does not currently have raw devices, there is no
need to reboot at this time.
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 (i.e., the root filesystem), make
sure nothing is writing to the disk, and that no files are "zombies"
waiting for deletion.
OPTIONS
-l Lists all filenames
-r Performs interactive repairs
-a Performs automatic repairs (this option implies -r), and serves
to answer all of the questions asked with the default. Note
that this can be extremely dangerous in the case of extensive
file system damage.
-v Verbose
-s Outputs super-block information
-m Activates MINIX-like "mode not cleared" warnings
-f Force file system check even if the file system was marked as
valid (this marking is done by the kernel when the file system
is unmounted).
SEE ALSO
fsck(8), fsck.ext(8), fsck.ext2(8), fsck.xiafs(8), mkfs(8),
mkfs.minix(8), mkfs.ext(8), mkfs.ext2(8), mkfs.xiafs(8), reboot(8)
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 file system,
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 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
In point of fact, only 0, 3, 4, 7, 8, and 16 can ever be returned.
AUTHOR
Linus Torvalds (torvalds@cs.helsinki.fi)
Error code values by Rik Faith (faith@cs.unc.edu)
Added support for file system valid flag: Dr. Wettstein
(greg%wind.uucp@plains.nodak.edu)
Check to prevent fsck of mounted filesystem added by Daniel Quinlan
(quinlan@yggdrasil.com)
Minix v2 fs support by Andreas Schwab (schwab@issan.informatik.uni-
dortmund.de), updated by Nicolai Langfeldt (janl@math.uio.no)
Portability patch by Russell King (rmk@ecs.soton.ac.uk).
AVAILABILITY
The fsck.minix command is part of the util-linux-ng package and is
available from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux-ng/.