2 .\" Copyright 2006 by Theodore Ts'o. All Rights Reserved.
3 .\" This file may be copied under the terms of the GNU Public License.
5 .TH e2fsck.conf 5 "@E2FSPROGS_MONTH@ @E2FSPROGS_YEAR@" "E2fsprogs version @E2FSPROGS_VERSION@"
7 e2fsck.conf \- Configuration file for e2fsck
10 is the configuration file for
12 It controls the default behavior of
14 while it is checking ext2 or ext3 filesystems.
18 file uses an INI-style format. Stanzas, or top-level sections, are
19 delimited by square braces: [ ]. Within each section, each line
20 defines a relation, which assigns tags to values, or to a subsection,
21 which contains further relations or subsections.
22 .\" Tags can be assigned multiple values
23 An example of the INI-style format used by this configuration file
38 subtag1 = subtag_value_a
40 subtag1 = subtag_value_b
42 subtag2 = subtag_value_c
52 Comments are delimited by a semicolon (';') or a hash ('#') character
53 at the beginning of the comment, and are terminated by the end of
56 Tags and values must be quoted using double quotes if they contain
57 spaces. Within a quoted string, the standard backslash interpretations
58 apply: "\en" (for the newline character),
59 "\et" (for the tab character), "\eb" (for the backspace character),
60 and "\e\e" (for the backslash character).
62 The following stanzas are used in the
64 file. They will be described in more detail in future sections of this
68 This stanza contains general configuration parameters for
73 This stanza allows the administrator to reconfigure how e2fsck handles
74 various filesystem inconsistencies.
77 This stanza controls when e2fsck will attempt to use scratch files to
78 reduce the need for memory.
79 .SH THE [options] STANZA
80 The following relations are defined in the
85 If this relation is set to a boolean value of true, then if the user
86 interrupts e2fsck using ^C, and the filesystem is not explicitly flagged
87 as containing errors, e2fsck will exit with an exit status of 0 instead
88 of 32. This setting defaults to false.
91 Some buggy distributions (such as Ubuntu) have init scripts and/or
92 installers which fail to correctly set the system clock before running
93 e2fsck and/or formatting the filesystem initially. Normally this
94 happens because the hardware clock is ticking localtime, instead of the
95 more proper and less error-prone UTC time. So while the kernel is
96 booting, the system time (which in Linux systems always ticks in UTC
97 time) is set from the hardware clock, but since the hardware clock is
98 ticking localtime, the system time is incorrect. Unfortunately, some
99 buggy distributions do not correct this before running e2fsck. If this
100 option is set to a boolean value of true, we attempt to work around this
101 situation by allowing the superblock last write time, last mount time,
102 and last check time to be in the future by up to 24 hours.
104 .I defer_check_on_battery
105 This boolean relation controls whether or not the interval between
106 filesystem checks (either based on time or number of mounts) should
107 be doubled if the system is running on battery. It defaults to
110 .I clear_test_fs_flag
111 This boolean relation controls whether or not e2fsck will offer to clear
112 the test_fs flag if the ext4 filesystem is available on the system. It
114 .SH THE [problems] STANZA
117 stanza names a problem code specified with a leading "0x" followed by
119 The value of the tag is a subsection where the relations in that
120 subsection override the default treatment of that particular problem
123 Note that inappropriate settings in this stanza may cause
125 to behave incorrectly, or even crash. Most system administrators should
126 not be making changes to this section without referring to source code.
128 Within each problem code's subsection, the following tags may be used:
131 This relation allows the message which is printed when this filesystem
132 inconsistency is detected to be overridden.
135 This boolean relation overrides the default behavior controlling
136 whether this filesystem problem should be automatically fixed when
138 is running in preen mode.
141 This boolean relation overrides the default behavior determining
142 whether or not the filesystem will be marked as inconsistent if the user
143 declines to fix the reported problem.
146 This boolean relation overrides whether the default answer for this
147 problem (or question) should be "no".
150 This boolean relation overrides the default behavior controlling
151 whether or not the description for this filesystem problem should
154 is running in preen mode.
157 This boolean relation overrides the default behavior controlling
158 whether or not the description for this filesystem problem should
164 .SH THE [scratch_files] STANZA
165 The following relations are defined in the
170 If the directory named by this relation exists and is writeable, then
171 e2fsck will attempt to use this directory to store scratch files instead
172 of using in-memory data structures.
175 If this relation is set, then in-memory data structures be used if the
176 number of directories in the filesystem are fewer than amount specified.
179 This relation controls whether or not the scratch file directory is used
180 instead of an in-memory data structure for directory information. It
184 This relation controls whether or not the scratch file directory is used
185 instead of an in-memory data structure when tracking inode counts. It
188 The following recipe will prevent e2fsck from aborting during the boot
189 process when a filesystem contains orphaned files. (Of course, this is
190 not always a good idea, since critical files that are needed for the
191 security of the system could potentially end up in lost+found, and
192 starting the system without first having a system administrator check
193 things out may be dangerous.)
202 description = "@u @i %i. "
208 The configuration file for