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 defer_check_on_battery
71 This boolean relation controls whether or not the interval
72 between filesystem checks (either based on time or number of
73 mounts) should be doubled if the system is running on battery.
74 It defaults to true.
75
77 Each tag in the [problems] stanza names a problem code specified with a
78 leading "0x" followed by six hex digits. The value of the tag is a
79 subsection where the relations in that subsection override the default
80 treatment of that particular problem code.
81 Note that inappropriate settings in this stanza may cause e2fsck to
83 behave incorrectly, or even crash. Most system administrators should
84 not be making changes to this section without referring to source code.
85 Within each problem code's subsection, the following tags may be used:
87 description
89 This relation allows the message which is printed when this
90 filesystem inconsistency is detected to be overridden.
91 preen_ok
93 This boolean relation overrides the default behavior controlling
94 whether this filesystem problem should be automatically fixed
95 when e2fsck is running in preen mode.
96 no_ok This boolean relation overrides the default behavior determining
98 whether or not the filesystem will be marked as inconsistent if
99 the user declines to fix the reported problem.
100 no_default
102 This boolean relation overrides whether the default answer for
103 this problem (or question) should be "no".
104 preen_nomessage
106 This boolean relation overrides the default behavior controlling
107 whether or not the description for this filesystem problem
108 should be suppressed when e2fsck is running in preen mode.
109 no_nomsg
111 This boolean relation overrides the default behavior controlling
112 whether or not the description for this filesystem problem
113 should be suppressed when e2fsck is run with the -n option.
114
116 The following relations are defined in the [scratch_files] stanza.
117 directory
119 If the directory named by this relation exists and is writeable,
120 then e2fsck will attempt to use this directory to store scratch
121 files instead of using in-memory data structures.
122 numdirs_threshold
124 If this relation is set, then in-memory data structures be used
125 if the number of directories in the filesystem are fewer than
126 amount specified.
127 dirinfo
129 This relation controls whether or not the scratch file directory
130 is used instead of an in-memory data structure for directory
131 information. It defaults to true.
132 icount This relation controls whether or not the scratch file directory
134 is used instead of an in-memory data structure when tracking
135 inode counts. It defaults to true.
136
138 The following recipe will prevent e2fsck from aborting during the boot
139 process when a filesystem contains orphaned files. (Of course, this is
140 not always a good idea, since critical files that are needed for the
141 security of the system could potentially end up in lost+found, and
142 starting the system without first having a system administrator check
143 things out may be dangerous.)
144 [problems]
146 0x040002 = {
147 preen_ok = true
148 description = "@u @i %i. "
149 }
150
152 /etc/e2fsck.conf
153 The configuration file for e2fsck(8).
154
156 e2fsck(8)
157E2fsprogs version 1.40.2 July 2007 e2fsck.conf(5)