1BTRFS-CHECK(8) Btrfs Manual BTRFS-CHECK(8)
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6 btrfs-check - check or repair an unmounted btrfs filesystem
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9 btrfs check [options] <device>
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12 The filesystem checker is used to verify structural integrity of a
13 filesystem and attempt to repair it if requested. The filesystem must
14 be unmounted.
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16 By default, btrfs check will not modify the device but you can reaffirm
17 that by the option --readonly.
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19 btrfsck is an alias of btrfs check command and is now deprecated.
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21 Warning
22 Do not use --repair unless you are advised to by a developer, an
23 experienced user or accept the fact that fsck cannot possibly fix
24 all sorts of damage that could happen to a filesystem because of
25 software and hardware bugs.
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27 The structural integrity check verifies if internal filesystem objects
28 or data structures satisfy the constraints, point to the right objects
29 or are correctly connected together.
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31 There are several cross checks that can detect wrong reference counts
32 of shared extents, backrefrences, missing extents of inodes, directory
33 and inode connectivity etc.
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35 The amount of memory required can be high, depending on the size of the
36 filesystem, smililarly the run time.
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39 -b|--backup
40 use the first valid set of backup roots stored in the superblock
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42 This can be combined with --super if some of the superblocks are
43 damaged.
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45 --check-data-csum
46 verify checksums of data blocks
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48 This expects that the filesystem is otherwise OK, so this is
49 basically and offline scrub but does not repair data from spare
50 coipes.
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52 --chunk-root <bytenr>
53 use the given offset bytenr for the chunk tree root
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55 -E|--subvol-extents <subvolid>
56 show extent state for the given subvolume
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58 -p|--progress
59 indicate progress at various checking phases
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61 --qgroup-report
62 verify qgroup accounting and compare against filesystem accounting
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64 -r|--tree-root <bytenr>
65 use the given offset bytenr for the tree root
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67 --readonly
68 (default) run in read-only mode, this option exists to calm
69 potential panic when users are going to run the checker
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71 -s|--super <superblock>
72 use 'superblock’th superblock copy, valid values are 0, 1 or 2 if
73 the respective superblock offset is within the device size
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75 This can be used to use a different starting point if some of the
76 primary superblock is damaged.
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78 --clear-space-cache v1|v2
79 completely wipe all free space cache of given type
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81 For free space cache v1, the clear_cache kernel mount option only
82 rebuilds the free space cache for block groups that are modified
83 while the filesystem is mounted with that option. Thus, using this
84 option with v1 makes it possible to actually clear the entire free
85 space cache.
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87 For free space cache v2, the clear_cache kernel mount option does
88 destroy the entire free space cache. This option with v2 provides
89 an alternative method of clearing the free space cache that doesn’t
90 require mounting the filesystem.
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93 --repair
94 enable the repair mode and attempt to fix problems where possible
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96 --init-csum-tree
97 create a new checksum tree and recalculate checksums in all files
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99 Note
100 Do not blindly use this option to fix checksum mismatch
101 problems.
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103 --init-extent-tree
104 build the extent tree from scratch
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106 Note
107 Do not use unless you know what you’re doing.
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109 --mode=MODE
110 select mode of operation regarding memory and IO
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112 The MODE can be one of original and lowmem. The original mode is
113 mostly unoptimized regarding memory consumpption and can lead to
114 out-of-memory conditions on large filesystems. The possible
115 workaround is to export the block device over network to a machine
116 with enough memory. The low memory mode is supposed to address the
117 memory consumption, at the cost of increased IO when it needs to
118 re-read blocks when needed. This may increase run time.
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120 Note
121 lowmem mode does not work with --repair yet, and is still
122 considered experimental.
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125 btrfs check returns a zero exit status if it succeeds. Non zero is
126 returned in case of failure.
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129 btrfs is part of btrfs-progs. Please refer to the btrfs wiki
130 http://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org for further details.
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133 mkfs.btrfs(8), btrfs-scrub(8), btrfs-rescue(8)
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137Btrfs v4.9.1 08/06/2017 BTRFS-CHECK(8)