Automatic fsck

[Bryce Harrington]

On Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 11:15:05AM +0100, Matt Zimmerman wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 11, 2008 at 02:09:19PM -0700, Bryce Harrington wrote:
> > On Mon, Aug 11, 2008 at 11:52:25AM +0100, Matt Zimmerman wrote:
> > > == Filesystem checking / AutoFsck ==
> > > 
> > > A suggestion was made to the technical board that Ubuntu could be smarter
> > > about how and when it performs filesystem integrity checks (fsck).
> > > 
> > > Decision: This should be discussed more widely in the developer community
> > > Action: Scott to start a thread on ubuntu-devel/-discuss
> > 
> > I find the autofsck to be most notable on my laptop, perhaps because I
> > reboot it more frequently, and because it usually chooses to autofsck at
> > some inopportune time.  I don't know if laptop harddrives need fsck more
> > than desktop's, but I wouldn't mind seeing the frequency be reduced for
> > laptops.
> > 
> > Alternatively, maybe the autofsck could be made to take a few more
> > factors into account, such as total run time since last fsck, total
> > absolute time since last fsck, drive age, etc.
> 
> Total run time sounds like an interesting one to watch.
> 
> Some of the other ideas which have been proposed are:
> 
> Run fsck during shutdown (when the user isn't expecting to be able to use
> the system for a while anyway) rather than at startup.
> https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/prompt-for-fsck-on-shutdown
> 
> Allow fsck to be easily skipped.  This was implemented in 8.04 as part of
> https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/usplash-polish
> 
> Skip fsck when running on battery.  Also implemented in 8.04 as part of
> https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/usplash-polish

More smaller partitions would be another option (with corresponding
trade-offs).  Or two partitions - one small one requiring frequent
fsck's, and a large one that needs fsck'd only occasionally.

Bryce