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e2fsck.conf(5)                File Formats Manual               e2fsck.conf(5)

NAME
       e2fsck.conf - Configuration file for e2fsck

DESCRIPTION
       e2fsck.conf  is  the configuration file for e2fsck(8).  It controls the
       default behavior of e2fsck(8) while it is checking ext2, ext3, or  ext4
       filesystems.

       The  e2fsck.conf  file uses an INI-style format.  Stanzas, or top-level
       sections, are delimited by square braces: [ ].   Within  each  section,
       each  line  defines  a  relation, which assigns tags to values, or to a
       subsection, which contains further relations or subsections.  An  exam-
       ple of the INI-style format used by this configuration file follows be-
       low:

            [section1]
                 tag1 = value_a
                 tag1 = value_b
                 tag2 = value_c

            [section 2]
                 tag3 = {
                      subtag1 = subtag_value_a
                      subtag1 = subtag_value_b
                      subtag2 = subtag_value_c
                 }
                 tag1 = value_d
                 tag2 = value_e
            }

       Comments are delimited by a semicolon (';') or a hash  ('#')  character
       at  the beginning of the comment, and are terminated by the end of line
       character.

       Tags and values must be quoted using double quotes if they contain spa-
       ces.   Within  a  quoted string, the standard backslash interpretations
       apply: "\n" (for the newline character), "\t" (for the tab  character),
       "\b" (for the backspace character), and "\\" (for the backslash charac-
       ter).

       The following stanzas are used in the e2fsck.conf file.  They  will  be
       described in more detail in future sections of this document.

       [options]
              This   stanza  contains  general  configuration  parameters  for
              e2fsck's behavior.

       [defaults]
              Contains relations which define the default parameters  used  by
              e2fsck(8).  In general, these defaults may be overridden by com-
              mand-line options provided by the user.

       [problems]
              This stanza allows the administrator to reconfigure  how  e2fsck
              handles various filesystem inconsistencies.

       [scratch_files]
              This  stanza  controls  when  e2fsck will attempt to use scratch
              files to reduce the need for memory.

THE [options] STANZA
       The following relations are defined in the [options] stanza.

       allow_cancellation
              If this relation is set to a boolean value of true, then if  the
              user  interrupts  e2fsck using ^C, and the filesystem is not ex-
              plicitly flagged as containing errors, e2fsck will exit with  an
              exit status of 0 instead of 32.  This setting defaults to false.

       accept_time_fudge
              Unfortunately,  due  to  Windows' unfortunate design decision to
              configure the hardware clock to tick localtime, instead  of  the
              more  proper and less error-prone UTC time, many users end up in
              the situation where the system clock is incorrectly set  at  the
              time when e2fsck is run.

              Historically  this  was usually due to some distributions having
              buggy init scripts and/or installers that didn't  correctly  de-
              tect  this  case and take appropriate countermeasures.  Unfortu-
              nately, this is occasionally true even today, usually due  to  a
              buggy  or  misconfigured virtualization manager or the installer
              not having access to a network time server during the  installa-
              tion  process.   So by default, we allow the superblock times to
              be fudged by up to 24 hours.  This can be  disabled  by  setting
              accept_time_fudge  to  the boolean value of false.  This setting
              defaults to true.

       broken_system_clock
              The e2fsck(8) program has some heuristics that assume  that  the
              system clock is correct.  In addition, many system programs make
              similar assumptions.  For example, the UUID library  depends  on
              time  not going backwards in order for it to be able to make its
              guarantees about issuing universally unique ID's.  Systems  with
              broken  system clocks, are well, broken.  However, broken system
              clocks, particularly in embedded systems, do exist.  E2fsck will
              attempt  to  use  heuristics to determine if the time can not be
              trusted; and to skip time-based checks if this is true.  If this
              boolean  is set to true, then e2fsck will always assume that the
              system clock can not be trusted.

       buggy_init_scripts
              This boolean relation is  an  alias  for  accept_time_fudge  for
              backwards compatibility; it used to be that the behavior defined
              by   accept_time_fudge   above   defaulted   to    false,    and
              buggy_init_scripts  would  enable  superblock  time  field to be
              wrong by up to 24 hours.  When we changed the default,  we  also
              renamed this boolean relation to accept_time_fudge.

       clear_test_fs_flag
              This boolean relation controls whether or not e2fsck(8) will of-
              fer to clear the test_fs flag if the ext4 filesystem  is  avail-
              able on the system.  It defaults to true.

       defer_check_on_battery
              This  boolean  relation controls whether or not the interval be-
              tween filesystem checks (either  based  on  time  or  number  of
              mounts)  should  be doubled if the system is running on battery.
              This setting defaults to true.

       indexed_dir_slack_percentage
              When e2fsck(8) repacks a indexed directory, reserve  the  speci-
              fied  percentage of empty space in each leaf nodes so that a few
              new entries can be added to the directory without splitting leaf
              nodes,  so  that  the  average  fill ratio of directories can be
              maintained at a higher, more efficient level.  This relation de-
              faults to 20 percent.

       inode_count_fullmap
              If  this  boolean  relation  is true, trade off using memory for
              speed when checking a file system with a large number  of  hard-
              linked  files.  The amount of memory required is proportional to
              the number of inodes in the file system.  For  large  file  sys-
              tems, this can be gigabytes of memory.  (For example a 40TB file
              system with 2.8 billion inodes will consume an additional 5.7 GB
              memory  if this optimization is enabled.)  This setting defaults
              to false.

       log_dir
              If the log_filename or problem_log_filename relations contains a
              relative  pathname,  then the log file will be placed in the di-
              rectory named by the log_dir relation.

       log_dir_fallback
              This relation contains an alternate directory that will be  used
              if the directory specified by log_dir is not available or is not
              writable.

       log_dir_wait
              If this boolean relation is true, them if the directories speci-
              fied by log_dir or log_dir_fallback are not available or are not
              yet writable, e2fsck will save the output in  a  memory  buffer,
              and a child process will periodically test to see if the log di-
              rectory has become available after the boot sequence has mounted
              the  requested file system for reading/writing.  This implements
              the functionality provided by logsave(8) for e2fsck log files.

       log_filename
              This relation specifies the file name where a copy  of  e2fsck's
              output  will  be  written.   If certain problem reports are sup-
              pressed using the max_count_problems relation,  (or  on  a  per-
              problem  basis  using  the  max_count relation), the full set of
              problem reports will be written to the log file.   The  filename
              may contain various percent-expressions (%D, %T, %N, etc.) which
              will be expanded so that the file name for the log file can  in-
              clude  things  like  date, time, device name, and other run-time
              parameters.  See the LOGGING section for more details.

       max_count_problems
              This relation specifies the maximum number of problem reports of
              a particular type will be printed to stdout before further prob-
              lem reports of that type are squelched.  This can be  useful  if
              the  console is slow (i.e., connected to a serial port) and so a
              large amount of output could end up delaying  the  boot  process
              for a long time (potentially hours).

       no_optimize_extents
              If  this  boolean relation is true, do not offer to optimize the
              extent tree by reducing the tree's width or depth.  This setting
              defaults to false.

       problem_log_filename
              This  relation  specifies  the  file name where a log of problem
              codes found by e2fsck be written.  The filename may contain var-
              ious  percent-expressions  (%D,  %T, %N, etc.) which will be ex-
              panded so that the file name for the log file can include things
              like  date,  time,  device  name, and other run-time parameters.
              See the LOGGING section for more details.

       readahead_mem_pct
              Use this percentage of memory to try to read in metadata  blocks
              ahead  of the main e2fsck thread.  This should reduce run times,
              depending on the speed of the underlying storage and the  amount
              of  free  memory.  There is no default, but see readahead_kb for
              more details.

       readahead_kb
              Use this amount of memory to read in metadata  blocks  ahead  of
              the  main  checking thread.  Setting this value to zero disables
              readahead entirely.  By default, this is set  the  size  of  two
              block  groups'  inode  tables  (typically 4MiB on a regular ext4
              filesystem); if this amount is more than 1/50th of total  physi-
              cal memory, readahead is disabled.

       report_features
              If  this  boolean  relation  is true, e2fsck will print the file
              system features as part of its verbose reporting (i.e.,  if  the
              -v option is specified)

       report_time
              If  this boolean relation is true, e2fsck will run as if the op-
              tions -tt are always specified.  This will cause e2fsck to print
              timing  statistics  on a pass by pass basis for full file system
              checks.

       report_verbose
              If this boolean relation is true, e2fsck will run as if the  op-
              tion  -v  is  always specified.  This will cause e2fsck to print
              some additional information at the end of each full file  system
              check.

THE [defaults] STANZA
       The following relations are defined in the [defaults] stanza.

       undo_dir
              This relation specifies the directory where the undo file should
              be stored.  It can be overridden via the E2FSPROGS_UNDO_DIR  en-
              vironment  variable.   If  the  directory location is set to the
              value none, e2fsck will not create an undo file.

THE [problems] STANZA
       Each tag in the [problems] stanza names a problem code specified with a
       leading  "0x"  followed  by  six hex digits.  The value of the tag is a
       subsection where the relations in that subsection override the  default
       treatment of that particular problem code.

       Note that inappropriate settings in this stanza may cause e2fsck to be-
       have incorrectly, or even crash.  Most system administrators should not
       be making changes to this section without referring to source code.

       Within each problem code's subsection, the following tags may be used:

       description
              This  relation  allows  the  message  which is printed when this
              filesystem inconsistency is detected to be overridden.

       preen_ok
              This boolean relation overrides the default behavior controlling
              whether  this  filesystem  problem should be automatically fixed
              when e2fsck is running in preen mode.

       max_count
              This integer relation overrides the max_count_problems parameter
              (set in the options section) for this particular problem.

       no_ok  This boolean relation overrides the default behavior determining
              whether or not the filesystem will be marked as inconsistent  if
              the user declines to fix the reported problem.

       no_default
              This  boolean  relation overrides whether the default answer for
              this problem (or question) should be "no".

       preen_nomessage
              This boolean relation overrides the default behavior controlling
              whether  or  not  the  description  for  this filesystem problem
              should be suppressed when e2fsck is running in preen mode.

       no_nomsg
              This boolean relation overrides the default behavior controlling
              whether  or  not  the  description  for  this filesystem problem
              should be suppressed when a problem forced not to be fixed,  ei-
              ther  because  e2fsck  is  run with the -n option or because the
              force_no flag has been set for the problem.

       force_no
              This boolean option, if set to true, forces a problem  to  never
              be  fixed.   That is, it will be as if the user problem responds
              'no' to the question of 'should this problem  be  fixed?'.   The
              force_no  option  even overrides the -y option given on the com-
              mand-line (just for the specific problem, of course).

       not_a_fix
              This boolean option, it set to true, marks the  problem  as  one
              where if the user gives permission to make the requested change,
              it does not mean that the file system had a  problem  which  has
              since  been  fixed.   This  is used for requests to optimize the
              file system's data structure, such as pruning an extent tree.

THE [scratch_files] STANZA
       The following relations are defined in the [scratch_files] stanza.

       directory
              If the directory named by this relation exists and is writeable,
              then  e2fsck will attempt to use this directory to store scratch
              files instead of using in-memory data structures.

       numdirs_threshold
              If this relation is set, then in-memory data structures will  be
              used  if  the  number of directories in the filesystem are fewer
              than amount specified.

       dirinfo
              This relation controls whether or not the scratch file directory
              is used instead of an in-memory data structure for directory in-
              formation.  It defaults to true.

       icount This relation controls whether or not the scratch file directory
              is used instead of an in-memory data structure when tracking in-
              ode counts.  It defaults to true.

LOGGING
       E2fsck has the facility to save the information from an e2fsck run in a
       directory so that a system administrator can review its output at their
       leisure.  This allows information captured during the automatic  e2fsck
       preen  run,  as  well as a manually started e2fsck run, to be saved for
       posterity.  This facility is controlled by the  log_filename,  log_dir,
       log_dir_fallback, and log_dir_wait relations in the [options] stanza.

       The  filename in log_filename may contain the following percent-expres-
       sions that will be expanded as follows.

       %d     The current day of the month

       %D     The current date; this is a equivalent of %Y%m%d

       %h     The hostname of the system.

       %H     The current hour in 24-hour format (00..23)

       %m     The current month as a two-digit number (01..12)

       %M     The current minute (00..59)

       %N     The name of the block device containing the  file  system,  with
              any directory pathname stripped off.

       %p     The pid of the e2fsck process

       %s     The  current  time  expressed  as  the  number  of seconds since
              1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC

       %S     The current second (00..59)

       %T     The current time; this is equivalent of %H%M%S

       %u     The name of the user running e2fsck.

       %U     This percent expression does not expand to anything, but it sig-
              nals  that  any following date or time expressions should be ex-
              pressed in UTC time instead of the local timezone.

       %y     The last two digits of the current year (00..99)

       %Y     The current year (i.e., 2012).

EXAMPLES
       The following recipe will prevent e2fsck from aborting during the  boot
       process when a filesystem contains orphaned files.  (Of course, this is
       not always a good idea, since critical files that are  needed  for  the
       security  of  the  system  could  potentially end up in lost+found, and
       starting the system without first having a system  administrator  check
       things out may be dangerous.)

            [problems]
                 0x040002 = {
                      preen_ok = true
                      description = "@u @i %i.  "
                 }

       The  following recipe will cause an e2fsck logfile to be written to the
       directory /var/log/e2fsck, with a filename  that  contains  the  device
       name,  the  hostname  of the system, the date, and time: e.g., "e2fsck-
       sda3.server.INFO.20120314-112142".    If   the   directory   containing
       /var/log  is located on the root file system which is initially mounted
       read-only, then the output will be saved in memory and written out once
       the root file system has been remounted read/write.   To avoid too much
       detail from being written to the serial  console  (which  could  poten-
       tially  slow  down  the  boot sequence), only print no more than 16 in-
       stances of each type of file system corruption.

            [options]
                 max_count_problems = 16
                 log_dir = /var/log/e2fsck
                 log_filename = e2fsck-%N.%h.INFO.%D-%T
                 log_dir_wait = true

FILES
       /etc/e2fsck.conf
              The configuration file for e2fsck(8).

SEE ALSO
       e2fsck(8)

E2fsprogs version 1.45.5         January 2020                   e2fsck.conf(5)

NAME | DESCRIPTION | THE [options] STANZA | THE [defaults] STANZA | THE [problems] STANZA | THE [scratch_files] STANZA | LOGGING | EXAMPLES | FILES | SEE ALSO