[llvaporll]

ok, here is a real simple Q...what does "fsck" mean?..i see it mentioned frequently, and i found it all over the place when i search..but i found no definition or explanation....

and for extra credit, how about "OEM"...i am guessing "original equipment manufacturer" or something like that...?

thanks for helping out a novice...!

[iohead]

Originally posted by llvaporll:
ok, here is a real simple Q...what does "fsck" mean?..i see it mentioned frequently, and i found it all over the place when i search..but i found no definition or explanation....

and for extra credit, how about "OEM"...i am guessing "original equipment manufacturer" or something like that...?

thanks for helping out a novice...!

File System Consistency-checK

When files are created/deleted/modified during the running of an operating system, not all changes are committed to disk immediately (unless you are in synchronous write mode of some sort). If the system crashes or power goes off, the state of things in memory might not agree with the state of things on the disk. Hence the inconsistency, and hence the need for a consistency check.

Note that if you have a Journaled filesystem, a trail of meta-data changes is written to disk, and there is lesser need for fsck.

-A

[Arkham_c]

Originally posted by llvaporll:
ok, here is a real simple Q...what does "fsck" mean?

From the man page:

Code:
NAME
     fsck - filesystem consistency check and interactive repair

SYNOPSIS
     fsck -p [-f] [-m mode]
     fsck [-b block#] [-c level] [-l maxparallel] [-q] [-y] [-n] [-m mode]
          [filesystem] ...

DESCRIPTION
     The first form of fsck preens a standard set of filesystems or the speci-
     fied filesystems.  It is normally used in the script /etc/rc during auto-
     matic reboot.  Here fsck reads the table /etc/fstab to determine which
     filesystems to check.  Only partitions in fstab that are mounted ``rw,''
     ``rq'' or ``ro'' and that have non-zero pass number are checked.
     Filesystems with pass number 1 (normally just the root filesystem) are
     checked one at a time.  When pass 1 completes, all remaining filesystems
     are checked, running one process per disk drive.  The disk drive contain-
     ing each filesystem is inferred from the longest prefix of the device
     name that ends in a digit; the remaining characters are assumed to be the
     partition designator.  In preening mode, filesystems that are marked
     clean are skipped.  Filesystems are marked clean when they are unmounted,
     when they have been mounted read-only, or when fsck runs on them success-
     fully.