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1 | ext2ed - The extended-2 filesystem editor, version e2fsprogs |
2 | ||
3 | ||
4 | This version of ext2ed has been modified and updated by Theodore Ts'o | |
2b1f8279 TT |
5 | for inclusion with the e2fsprogs package. It now builds with modern |
6 | ncurses and I've fixed various small bugs, particular in the redrawing | |
7 | and resizing functions. | |
5e941d29 TT |
8 | |
9 | It is currently not built by default -- the top-level e2fsprogs | |
10 | Makefile doesn't recurse into this directory. This is because ext2ed | |
11 | has a number of VERY SERIOUS shortcomings: | |
12 | ||
2b1f8279 | 13 | 1) It doesn't work on filesystems bigger than 2GB |
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14 | |
15 | 2) It assumes that all's the world an Intel, and assumes that | |
16 | everything is in Intel (little-endian) byte order. | |
17 | ||
2b1f8279 TT |
18 | Fixing either of these problems would be non-trivial, and so I at this |
19 | point DO NOT RECOMMEND that distributions try to include this program, | |
20 | even as modified and updated in e2fsprogs. This especially goes for | |
5e941d29 TT |
21 | Debian, where the Debian maintainer for e2fsprogs has a history of |
22 | making authorized changes to e2fsprogs to include programs that aren't | |
23 | supported, and then starts bugging me with bug reports. YES I KNOW. | |
24 | THIS PROGRAM HAS HORRIBLE SHORTCOMINGS. IT IS INCLUDED HERE ONLY | |
25 | BECAUSE IT'S A CONVENIENT WAY FOR (FOR E2FSPROGS DEVELOPERS ON INTEL | |
26 | MACHINES) TO GENERATE TEST CASES BY SELECTIVELY CORRUPTING | |
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27 | FILESYSTEMS. I WILL NOT SUPPORT THIS PROGRAM FOR USE BY GENERAL USERS |
28 | SO PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE IT IN A DISTRIBUTION. | |
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29 | |
30 | I have currently disabled the use of GNU Readline in this program, | |
31 | because readline and ncurses really don't play well together at all. | |
32 | Readline assumes that it can write arbitrary text to the screen | |
33 | (especially when it tries to print out a completion list), which just | |
34 | doesn't work with ncurses. Fixing this so they would work together | |
35 | would require wholesale changes to readline. | |
36 | ||
37 | Theodore Ts'o | |
38 | tytso@MIT.EDU | |
39 | May 12, 2001 | |
40 | ||
41 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
42 | ||
0f31c737 | 43 | ext2ed - The extended-2 filesystem editor, version 0.2 |
583a1ce5 TT |
44 | ------------------------------------------------------ |
45 | ||
0f31c737 TT |
46 | This is version 0.2 of ext2ed - The extended-2 filesystem editor. |
47 | ||
48 | Modifications on Apr 5 2001 | |
49 | This is minor bug fixes to ext2ed, as of April 2001. | |
50 | It supports modern ext2 version that has file type in directory structure | |
055866d8 | 51 | and fixes the misunderstanding between ncurses and |
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52 | readline. |
53 | ||
055866d8 | 54 | I first applied patches from Red Hat except the one for readline that |
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55 | rewrote a readline behavior. |
56 | ||
57 | Globals diffs between version 0.1 and 0.2 is stored in file : | |
58 | diff-ext2ed.1.2 | |
59 | ||
60 | Christian Bac <Christian.Bac@nt-evry.fr> | |
61 | ||
62 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
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63 | |
64 | Documentation | |
65 | ------------- | |
66 | ||
67 | ext2ed's documentation consists of three documents: | |
68 | ||
69 | 1. The user's guide. | |
70 | 2. Technical overview of the ext2 filesystem. | |
71 | 3. The EXT2ED design and implementation document. | |
72 | ||
73 | Those documents are available in the doc directory, in linuxdoc-sgml and | |
74 | postscript formats. | |
75 | ||
76 | The documentation is also available online at: | |
77 | ||
78 | http://tochnapc2.technion.ac.il | |
79 | ||
80 | under the ext2ed section. | |
81 | ||
82 | Installation | |
83 | ------------ | |
84 | ||
85 | ext2ed requires the kernel sources and the readline and ncurses packages. | |
86 | Please edit the makefile if you are using an "old" version of ncurses (See the | |
87 | details below) or if gcc can't find the various header files and libraries. | |
88 | ||
89 | To install, simply issue a 'make' command to compile and a 'make install' | |
90 | command to install. I have also included an already compiled linux a.out | |
91 | binary. | |
92 | ||
93 | ext2ed and ncurses | |
94 | ------------------ | |
95 | ||
96 | ext2ed uses the ncurses library for terminal output. It is very important | |
97 | that ncurses will be properly installed on your system: | |
98 | ||
99 | 1. Old versions of ncurses (around 1.8.5) need the OLD_NCURSES compile | |
100 | time option in EXT2ED. | |
101 | ||
102 | At least from 1.9.2c, this flag should not be used. I would recommend | |
103 | upgrading the ncurses library to the newer versions. | |
104 | ||
105 | 2. ncurses uses its own terminfo database rather then the termcap file. | |
106 | It is important that the terminfo database will be found by ncurses. | |
107 | If this is not the case, you will see on startup some lines which | |
108 | refer to /etc/termcap. This will mean that there is a problem with | |
109 | the terminfo database. | |
110 | ||
111 | 3. Newer versions of ncurses (and the 1.3 series of the kernel) describe | |
112 | the linux console in the entry 'linux' and not 'console', as it was | |
113 | before. If you run ext2ed in the linux console, you should either | |
114 | set your TERM environment variable to 'linux' or link | |
115 | l/linux to c/console in the terminfo database. | |
116 | ||
055866d8 | 117 | 4. The precompiled binary was linked with ncurses 1.9.4 and will search |
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118 | for the terminfo database on /usr/local/lib/terminfo. If you are |
119 | using it, and your 1.9.4 compatible terminfo database is not on the | |
120 | directory above, use the TERMINFO environment variable to specify | |
121 | an alternate location. | |
122 | ||
123 | Running ext2ed | |
124 | -------------- | |
125 | ||
126 | For those of you who don't like reading lengthy articles, here are a few | |
127 | basic guidelines: | |
128 | ||
129 | 1. Don't use ext2ed to change a mounted filesystem ! | |
130 | ||
131 | Using ext2ed in read-only mode on a mounted filesystem can be allowed | |
132 | by using the configuration file option 'AllowMountedRead on'. However, | |
133 | note that the displayed data will be unreliable. | |
134 | ||
135 | 2. ext2ed currently can't handle filesystems bigger than 2 GB. I am | |
136 | sorry for the inconvenience. This will hopefully be fixed in future | |
137 | releases. | |
138 | ||
139 | 3. Before running ext2ed, edit the configuration file | |
140 | /var/lib/ext2ed/ext2ed.conf to suit your needs. The various | |
141 | configuration options are documented there. | |
142 | ||
143 | 4. Use the 'setdevice' command to open an ext2 filesystem. | |
144 | e.g. 'setdevice /dev/hda1'. | |
145 | ||
146 | 5. If the filesystem is an ext2 filesystem and ext2ed fails to | |
147 | autodetect this, use the 'ForceExt2 on' configuration file option. | |
148 | ||
149 | 6. The filesystem will always be opened in read-only mode. Feel free to | |
150 | experiment, but take care with the 'enablewrite' command. | |
151 | ||
152 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
153 | ||
154 | Feel free to send me feedback with anything regarding to ext2ed. | |
155 | ||
156 | Enjoy, | |
157 | ||
158 | Gadi Oxman <tgud@tochnapc2.technion.ac.il> | |
0f31c737 TT |
159 | Haifa, August 23 1995 |
160 |