fsck.minix(8) — Linux manual page

FSCK.MINIX(8)             System Administration            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 BEEN 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.

       -h, --help
           Display help text and exit.

       -V, --version
           Print version 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 STATUS

       The exit status 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 statuses 3 and 4

       8
           Operational error

       16
           Usage or syntax error

AUTHORS

       Linus Torvalds <torvalds@cs.helsinki.fi>. Exit status
       values by Rik Faith <faith@cs.unc.edu> Added support for
       filesystem 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>.

SEE ALSO

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

REPORTING BUGS

       For bug reports, use the issue tracker at
       https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues.

AVAILABILITY

       The fsck.minix command is part of the util-linux package
       which can be downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
       <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.
       This page is part of the util-linux (a random collection
       of Linux utilities) project. Information about the
       project can be found at 
       ⟨https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/⟩. If
       you have a bug report for this manual page, send it to
       util-linux@vger.kernel.org. This page was obtained from
       the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/util-linux/util-linux.git⟩
       on 2024-06-14. (At that time, the date of the most recent
       commit that was found in the repository was 2024-06-10.)
       If you discover any rendering problems in this HTML
       version of the page, or you believe there is a better or
       more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this
       COLOPHON (which is not part of the original manual page),
       send a mail to man-pages@man7.org

util-linux 2.39.594-1e0ad      2023-07-19                  FSCK.MINIX(8)

Pages that refer to this page: fsck(8@@e2fsprogs), fsck(8), systemd-fsck@.service(8)

---