Automatic fsck

[Onno Benschop]

>> 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
>>>       

One thing that I have not seen in this discussion is the notion that
fsck might be modified to run incrementally.

Another that I did not see is the idea that fsck can be run using -n
(though ReiserFS and minix aren't supported at the moment). If fsck is
run in the background and a notification is sent to the
user/administrator if corruption is found, then active intervention can
be recommended.

At present to me it seems that there are at least three different use
cases with different expectations:

   1. Ubuntu-desktop user with a desktop machine that is switched off
      regularly.
   2. Ubuntu-desktop user with a laptop that is mostly suspended and is
      only rebooted on crash or kernel update. Complicated by the fact
      that a laptop may be running on a battery.
   3. Ubuntu-server user with a server that is only rebooted on crash or
      kernel update.


I see with some alarm discussion about reducing the frequency of running
fsck. I'm running an ext3 laptop and I'm seeing quite regular
corruptions that require an fsck run to fix. (It may be related to a
particular kernel, but I've not yet got to the bottom of that.)

Fundamentally, in my opinion, fsck is a housekeeping process that is
required on a regular basis to ensure the sane state of a file-system,
no matter which one you use, errors do happen, even if there are no bugs
(ha!), we're talking about tiny magnetic fields affecting the
information on a hard-drive - this problem is only going to get bigger
with increased storage density.



-- 
Onno Benschop

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