FSCK(8)			     System Administration		       FSCK(8)



NAME
       fsck.minix - check consistency of Minix filesystem

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 filesystem 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 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  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 possi-
       bility  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	 dele-
       tion.

OPTIONS
       -l     List all filenames.

       -r     Perform interactive repairs.

       -a     Perform  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
	      filesystem damage.

       -v     Be verbose.

       -s     Output super-block information.

       -m     Activate MINIX-like "mode not cleared" warnings.

       -f     Force a filesystem check even if the filesystem  was  marked  as
	      valid (this marking is done by the kernel when the filesystem is
	      unmounted).

SEE ALSO
       fsck(8), fsck.ext2(8), mkfs(8), mkfs.minix(8), mkfs.ext2(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  filesystem,
       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      Filesystem  errors  corrected,  system  should  be  rebooted  if
	      filesystem was mounted

       4      Filesystem errors left uncorrected

       7      Combination of exit codes 3 and 4

       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   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).

AVAILABILITY
       The  fsck.minix command is part of the util-linux package and is avail-
       able from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.



util-linux			   July 1996			       FSCK(8)