1e2fsck.conf(5) File Formats Manual e2fsck.conf(5)
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6 e2fsck.conf - Configuration file for e2fsck
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9 e2fsck.conf is the configuration file for e2fsck(8). It controls the
10 default behavior of e2fsck(8) while it is checking ext2 or ext3
11 filesystems.
12 The e2fsck.conf file uses an INI-style format. Stanzas, or top-level
14 sections, are delimited by square braces: [ ]. Within each section,
15 each line defines a relation, which assigns tags to values, or to a
16 subsection, which contains further relations or subsections. An exam‐
17 ple of the INI-style format used by this configuration file follows
18 below:
19 [section1]
21 tag1 = value_a
22 tag1 = value_b
23 tag2 = value_c
24 [section 2]
26 tag3 = {
27 subtag1 = subtag_value_a
28 subtag1 = subtag_value_b
29 subtag2 = subtag_value_c
30 }
31 tag1 = value_d
32 tag2 = value_e
33 }
34 Comments are delimited by a semicolon (';') or a hash ('#') character
36 at the beginning of the comment, and are terminated by the end of line
37 character.
38 Tags and values must be quoted using double quotes if they contain spa‐
40 ces. Within a quoted string, the standard backslash interpretations
41 apply: "\n" (for the newline character), "\t" (for the tab character),
42 "\b" (for the backspace character), and "\\" (for the backslash charac‐
43 ter).
44 The following stanzas are used in the e2fsck.conf file. They will be
46 described in more detail in future sections of this document.
47 [options]
49 This stanza contains general configuration parameters for
50 e2fsck's behavior.
51 [problems]
53 This stanza allows the administrator to reconfigure how e2fsck
54 handles various filesystem inconsistencies.
55 [scratch_files]
57 This stanza controls when e2fsck will attempt to use scratch
58 files to reduce the need for memory.
59
61 The following relations are defined in the [options] stanza.
62 allow_cancellation
64 If this relation is set to a boolean value of true, then if the
65 user interrupts e2fsck using ^C, and the filesystem is not
66 explicitly flagged as containing errors, e2fsck will exit with
67 an exit status of 0 instead of 32. This setting defaults to
68 false.
69 accept_time_fudge
71 Unfortunately, due to Windows' unfortunate design decision to
72 configure the hardware clock to tick localtime, instead of the
73 more proper and less error-prone UTC time, many users end up in
74 the situation where the system clock is incorrectly set at the
75 time when e2fsck is run.
76 Historically this was usually due to some distributions having
78 buggy init scripts and/or installers that didn't correctly
79 detect this case and take appropriate countermeasures. However,
80 it's still possible, despite the best efforts of init script and
81 installer authors to not be able to detect this misconfigura‐
82 tion, usually due to a buggy or misconfigured virtualization
83 manager or the installer not having access to a network time
84 server during the installation process. So by default, we allow
85 the superblock times to be fudged by up to 24 hours. This can
86 be disabled by setting accept_time_fudge to the boolean value of
87 false. This setting defaults to true.
88 broken_system_clock
90 The e2fsck(8) program has some heuristics that assume that the
91 system clock is correct. In addition, many system programs make
92 similar assumptions. For example, the UUID library depends on
93 time not going backwards in order for it to be able to make its
94 guarantees about issuing universally unique ID's. Systems with
95 broken system clocks, are well, broken. However, broken system
96 clocks, particularly in embedded systems, do exist. E2fsck will
97 attempt to use heuristics to determine if the time can not be
98 trusted; and to skip time-based checks if this is true. If this
99 boolean is set to true, then e2fsck will always assume that the
100 system clock can not be trusted.
101 clear_test_fs_flag
103 This boolean relation controls whether or not e2fsck(8) will
104 offer to clear the test_fs flag if the ext4 filesystem is avail‐
105 able on the system. It defaults to true.
106 defer_check_on_battery
108 This boolean relation controls whether or not the interval
109 between filesystem checks (either based on time or number of
110 mounts) should be doubled if the system is running on battery.
111 This setting defaults to true.
112 indexed_dir_slack_percentage
114 When e2fsck(8) repacks a indexed directory, reserve the speci‐
115 fied percentage of empty space in each leaf nodes so that a few
116 new entries can be added to the directory without splitting leaf
117 nodes, so that the average fill ratio of directories can be
118 maintained at a higher, more efficient level. This relation
119 defaults to 20 percent.
120
122 Each tag in the [problems] stanza names a problem code specified with a
123 leading "0x" followed by six hex digits. The value of the tag is a
124 subsection where the relations in that subsection override the default
125 treatment of that particular problem code.
126 Note that inappropriate settings in this stanza may cause e2fsck to
128 behave incorrectly, or even crash. Most system administrators should
129 not be making changes to this section without referring to source code.
130 Within each problem code's subsection, the following tags may be used:
132 description
134 This relation allows the message which is printed when this
135 filesystem inconsistency is detected to be overridden.
136 preen_ok
138 This boolean relation overrides the default behavior controlling
139 whether this filesystem problem should be automatically fixed
140 when e2fsck is running in preen mode.
141 no_ok This boolean relation overrides the default behavior determining
143 whether or not the filesystem will be marked as inconsistent if
144 the user declines to fix the reported problem.
145 no_default
147 This boolean relation overrides whether the default answer for
148 this problem (or question) should be "no".
149 preen_nomessage
151 This boolean relation overrides the default behavior controlling
152 whether or not the description for this filesystem problem
153 should be suppressed when e2fsck is running in preen mode.
154 no_nomsg
156 This boolean relation overrides the default behavior controlling
157 whether or not the description for this filesystem problem
158 should be suppressed when e2fsck is run with the -n option.
159
161 The following relations are defined in the [scratch_files] stanza.
162 directory
164 If the directory named by this relation exists and is writeable,
165 then e2fsck will attempt to use this directory to store scratch
166 files instead of using in-memory data structures.
167 numdirs_threshold
169 If this relation is set, then in-memory data structures be used
170 if the number of directories in the filesystem are fewer than
171 amount specified.
172 dirinfo
174 This relation controls whether or not the scratch file directory
175 is used instead of an in-memory data structure for directory
176 information. It defaults to true.
177 icount This relation controls whether or not the scratch file directory
179 is used instead of an in-memory data structure when tracking
180 inode counts. It defaults to true.
181
183 The following recipe will prevent e2fsck from aborting during the boot
184 process when a filesystem contains orphaned files. (Of course, this is
185 not always a good idea, since critical files that are needed for the
186 security of the system could potentially end up in lost+found, and
187 starting the system without first having a system administrator check
188 things out may be dangerous.)
189 [problems]
191 0x040002 = {
192 preen_ok = true
193 description = "@u @i %i. "
194 }
195
197 /etc/e2fsck.conf
198 The configuration file for e2fsck(8).
199
201 e2fsck(8)
202E2fsprogs version 1.41.12 May 2010 e2fsck.conf(5)