REISERFSCK(8)                                       REISERFSCK(8)

NAME
       reiserfsck - The checking tool for the ReiserFS filesystem.

SYNOPSIS
       reiserfsck [ -afprVy ] [ --rebuild-sb |  --check  |  --fix-
       fixable  |  --rebuild-tree  |  --clean-attributes  ] [ -j |
       --journal device ] [ -z | --adjust-size ] [ -n | --nolog  ]
       [  -B  |  --badblocks file ] [ -l | --logfile file ] [ -q |
       --quiet ] [ -y | --yes ] [ -S | --scan-whole-partition ]  [
       --no-journal-available ] device

DESCRIPTION
       Reiserfsck  searches for a Reiserfs filesystem on a device,
       replays any necessary transactions, and  either  checks  or
       repairs the file system.

       device is  the special file corresponding to a device or to
              a partition (e.g /dev/hdXX for an IDE disk partition
              or /dev/sdXX for a SCSI disk partition).

OPTIONS
       --rebuild-sb
              This  option  recovers  the superblock on a Reiserfs
              partition.  Normally you only need  this  option  if
              mount  reports "read_super_block: can't find a reis-
              erfs file system" and you are sure that  a  Reiserfs
              file  system is there. But remember that if you have
              used some partition editor program and now you  can-
              not  find  a filesystem, probably something has gone
              wrong while repartitioning and the start of the par-
              tition  has been changed. If so, instead of rebuild-
              ing the super block on a wrong place you should find
              the correct start of the partition first.

       --check
              This  default  action  checks filesystem consistency
              and reports, but does not repair any corruption that
              it  finds.  This  option  may be used on a read-only
              file system mount.

       --fix-fixable
              This option recovers  certain  kinds  of  corruption
              that  do not require rebuilding the entire file sys-
              tem tree (--rebuild-tree). Normally  you  only  need
              this  option  if the --check option reports "corrup-
              tion that can be  fixed  with  --fix-fixable".  This
              includes:  zeroing invalid data-block pointers, cor-
              recting st_size and st_blocks for  directories,  and
              deleting invalid directory entries.

       --rebuild-tree
              This  option  rebuilds  the  entire  filesystem tree
              using leaf nodes found on the device.  Normally  you
              only  need  this  option  if  the reiserfsck --check
              reports "Running with --rebuild-tree  is  required".
              You are strongly encouraged to make a backup copy of
              the whole partition before attempting the --rebuild-
              tree   option.  Once  reiserfsck  --rebuild-tree  is
              started it must finish its work (and you should  not
              interrupt it), otherwise the filesystem will be left
              in the unmountable state to  avoid  subsequent  data
              corruptions.

       --clean-attributes
              This  option  cleans  reserved  fields  of Stat-Data
              items. There were days when there were  no  extended
              attributes  in  reiserfs. When they were implemented
              old partitions needed to be cleaned first  --  reis-
              erfs  code in the kernel did not care about not used
              fields in its strutures. Thus if you have  used  one
              of  the  old (pre-attrbutes) kernels with a ReiserFS
              filesystem and you want to  use  extented  attribues
              there, you should clean the filesystem first.

       --journal device , -j device
              This  option supplies the device name of the current
              file system journal.  This option is  required  when
              the  journal  resides  on a separate device from the
              main data device (although it can  be  avoided  with
              the expert option --no-journal-available).

       --adjust-size, -z
              This  option causes reiserfsck to correct file sizes
              that are larger than the offset of the last  discov-
              ered  byte.  This implies that holes at the end of a
              file will be removed.  File sizes that  are  smaller
              than the offset of the last discovered byte are cor-
              rected by --fix-fixable.

       --badblocks file, -B  file
              This option sets the badblock list to be the list of
              blocks specified in the given `file`. The filesystem
              badblock list is cleared  before  the  new  list  is
              added.  It can be used with --fix-fixable to fix the
              list of badblocks (see  debugreiserfs  -B).  If  the
              device  has  bad blocks, every time it must be given
              with the --rebuild-tree option.

       --logfile file, -l  file
              This option causes reiserfsck to report any  corrup-
              tion  it finds to the specified log file rather than
              to stderr.

       --nolog, -n
              This option prevents reiserfsck from  reporting  any
              kinds of corruption.

       --quiet, -q
              This  option  prevents reiserfsck from reporting its
              rate of progress.

       --yes, -y
              This option inhibits reiserfsck from asking you  for
              confirmation  after  telling you what it is going to
              do. It will assuem you confirm. For safety, it  does
              not work with the --rebuild-tree option.

       -a, -p These  options  are usually passed by fsck -A during
              the automatic checking of those partitions listed in
              /etc/fstab.  These options cause reiserfsck to print
              some information about the specified filesystem,  to
              check  if  error flags in the superblock are set and
              to do some  light-weight  checks.  If  these  checks
              reveal a corruption or the flag indicating a (possi-
              bly  fixable)  corruption  is  found  set   in   the
              superblock, then reiserfsck switches to the fix-fix-
              able mode. If the flag indicating a fatal corruption
              is  found  set  in  the  superblock, then reiserfsck
              finishes with an error.

       -V     This option prints  the  reiserfsprogs  version  and
              then exit.

       -r, -f These  options are not yet operational and therefore
              are ignored.

EXPERT OPTIONS
       DO NOT USE THESE OPTIONS  UNLESS  YOU  KNOW  WHAT  YOU  ARE
       DOING.  WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU LOSE DATA AS A RESULT
       OF THESE OPTIONS.

       --no-journal-available
              This option allows reiserfsck to  proceed  when  the
              journal  device is not available. This option has no
              effect when the journal is located on the main  data
              device.  NOTE:  after  this  operation  you must use
              reiserfstune to specify a new journal device.

       --scan-whole-partition, -S
              This option causes --rebuild-tree to scan the  whole
              partition  but not only the used space on the parti-
              tion.

AN EXAMPLE OF USING reiserfsck
       1. You think something may be wrong with a reiserfs  parti-
       tion on /dev/hda1 or you would just like to perform a peri-
       odic disk check.

       2. Run reiserfsck --check --logfile check.log /dev/hda1. If
       reiserfsck  --check  exits with status 0 it means no errors
       were discovered.

       3. If reiserfsck --check exits with status 1  (and  reports
       about  fixable  corruptions)  it  means that you should run
       reiserfsck --fix-fixable --logfile fixable.log /dev/hda1.

       4. If reiserfsck --check exits with status 2  (and  reports
       about  fatal  corruptions)  it  means  that you need to run
       reiserfsck --rebuild-tree.  If reiserfsck --check fails  in
       some way you should also run reiserfsck --rebuild-tree, but
       we also encourage you to submit this as a bug report.

       5. Before running reiserfsck --rebuild-tree, please make  a
       backup  of  the whole partition before proceeding. Then run
       reiserfsck --rebuild-tree --logfile rebuild.log  /dev/hda1.

       6.  If the reiserfsck --rebuild-tree step fails or does not
       recover what you expected, please  submit  this  as  a  bug
       report.  Try  to  provide  as  much information as possible
       including your platform and Linux kernel version.  We  will
       try to help solve the problem.

EXIT CODES
       reiserfsck uses the following exit codes:
          0 - No errors.
          1 - File system errors corrected.
          2 - Reboot is needed.
          4 - File system fatal errors left uncorrected,
              reiserfsck --rebuild-tree needs to be launched.
          6 - File system fixable errors left uncorrected,
              reiserfsck --fix-fixable needs to be launched.
          8 - Operational error.
          16 - Usage or syntax error.

AUTHOR
       This version of reiserfsck has been written by Vitaly Fert-
       man <vitaly@namesys.com>.

BUGS
       Please report bugs to the  ReiserFS  developers  <reiserfs-
       dev@namesys.com>,  providing  as much information as possi-
       ble--your hardware, kernel, patches, settings, all  printed
       messages,  the  logfile;  check  the  syslog  file  for any
       related information.

TODO
       Faster recovering, signal handling.

SEE ALSO
       mkreiserfs(8),  reiserfstune(8)  resize_reiserfs(8),  debu-
       greiserfs(8),



Reiserfsprogs-3.6.18       February 2004             REISERFSCK(8)