What does fsck mean?  I always thought it was those strange bearded
sysadmins private cuss word as they always seem to scream *fsck yes
damnit!!!* whenever the system crashes....

On 10/2/09, frantisek holop <minusf@obiit.org> wrote:
quoted text
> hmm, on Fri, Oct 02, 2009 at 07:31:39PM +0200, Otto Moerbeek said that
>> > fsck -y
>> >
>> > after a power or other type of failure,
>> > in cases the automatic file system check fails?
>>
>> If that was a wisething to do, we would have already done so. In other
>> words, it is not wise. It's foolish.
>
> as usually, i absolutely agree with you Otto.
>
> however.
>
> please all the people in the room raise their hands who have the
> faintest idea about what 95% of the questions that fsck is going to ask
> them on a seriously borked fs mean.  my hat goes off to them.
>
> here's the thing: even though every single diagnostic message
> fsck may produce is documented in /usr/share/doc/smm/03.fsck_ffs
> i dont see how these questions help at all.  what i mean is,
> there is nothing to compare the diagnostic data to anyway, so
> what is the answer going to be based on?  so far i have always
> only took the leap of faith and pressed yes or always..  what
> else is there to do?
>
> a couple of months ago, after a certain incident on my notebook
> i was presented with a borked suberblock and after i have
> figured out that the backup superblock were usable, i just
> crossed my fingers and after a dry run i started fsck.
>
> i got some 7700 'UNKNOWN FILE TYPE's, an unallocated root inode,
> bad magic numbers for CGs and fsck messages i have never had the
> luck meeting with before... (should read 03.fsck_ffs one of
> these days probably -- but even then, i would just say yes
> on every question)
>
> unfortunately i dont have a transcript of that fsck session,
> i do however have a "screenshot" of the last phase:
>
> ** Phase 5 - Check Cyl groups
> CG 0: BAD MAGIC NUMBER
> FREE BLK COUNT(S) WRONG IN SUPERBLK
> SALVAGE? yes
>
> SUMMARY INFORMATION BAD
> SALVAGE? yes
>
> BLK(S) MISSING IN BIT MAPS
> SALVAGE? yes
>
> 118774 files, 4966785 used, 2542705 free (17073 frags, 315704 blocks, 0.2%
> fragmentation)
>
> UPDATE STANDARD SUPERBLOCK? yes
>
>
> MARK FILE SYSTEM CLEAN? yes
>
>
> ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
>
> (for the curious: all my files survived under lost+found.  i was
> as happy as it can be)
>
> if fsck thinks there is a problem, there is nothing left but to press y
> anyway.  although i'd very much like to read stories of other admins
> doing otherwise.
>
> -f
> --
> atheism is a non-prophet organization.
>
>

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