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Date:      Mon, 6 Apr 2009 19:12:11 +0100
From:      Chris Rees <utisoft@googlemail.com>
To:        Bruce Cran <bruce@cran.org.uk>, olli@lurza.secnetix.de,  wojtek@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl,  FreeBSD Mailing List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Question about forcing fsck at boottime
Message-ID:  <b79ecaef0904061112w75d8bd4ep1388d8d9fe2c4261@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <20090406001614.304360d6@gluon.draftnet>
References:  <b79ecaef0903310247o356fdfb8mdc8cd2c3621366ee@mail.gmail.com> <200903311657.n2VGvLE8010101@lurza.secnetix.de> <b79ecaef0904051340v6ba08df4sa376a1ef57e3a7e2@mail.gmail.com> <20090406001614.304360d6@gluon.draftnet>

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2009/4/6 Bruce Cran <bruce@cran.org.uk>:
> On Sun, 5 Apr 2009 21:40:52 +0100
> Chris Rees <utisoft@googlemail.com> wrote:
>
>> 2009/3/31 Oliver Fromme <olli@lurza.secnetix.de>:
>> > Chris Rees <utisoft@googlemail.com> wrote:
>> > =A0> 2009/3/31 Wojciech Puchar <wojtek@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl>:
>> > =A0> >
>> > =A0> > IMHO this background fsck isn't good idea at all
>> > =A0>
>> > =A0> Why?
>> >
>> > Google "background fsck damage".
>> >
>> > I was bitten by it myself, and I also recommend to turn
>> > background fsck off. =A0If your disks are large and you
>> > can't afford the fsck time, consider using ZFS, which
>> > has a lot of benefits besides not requiring fsck.
>> >
>> > Best regards
>> > =A0 Oliver
>> >
>>
>> Right... You were bitten by background fsck, what _exactly_ happened?
>> All the 'problems' here associated with bgfsck are referring to
>> FreeBSD 4 etc, or incredibly vague anecdotal evidence. Have you
>> googled for background fsck damage? Nothing (in the first two pages at
>> least) even suggests that background fsck causes damage.
>>
>
> http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=3Dbackground+fsck+corruption
>
> You'll find the first few results are about panics during background
> fsck resulting in an endless cycle of boot-panic-reboot, which don't
> occur with foreground fsck. And at least the first result is from 6.x.
>
> --
> Bruce Cran
>

So... Is the background fsck causing damage or corruption? The answer
to that is NO. It's a consequence of reading a bad directory
structure, which happened anyway.

Quoting jpd on this same issue, emphasis added:

> So far we only have *your word* for *vague problems* and *speculated caus=
es*.
> So your best bets so far are to investigate, and lending a hand to the
> fs people with ironing out a possible bug or two.

Seriously, this conversation is full of crap, and only makes one of
FreeBSDs incredibly useful features look bad with no evidence. Can
no-one can come up with a reply either quoting a mailing list or
giving the circumstances when:

a) Background fsck caused data CORRUPTION

_and_

b) A foreground fsck would not have done the same

?

Anything else is sidestepping the question, and spreading FUD.

Anyone?

Perhaps I should CC one of the filesystem developers to get them to
reassure you all? I don't think they'd be too pleased at people saying
their design is flawed. It's not.

Chris

--=20
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?



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