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Date:      Mon, 17 Mar 2003 19:49:25 -0800
From:      Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com>
To:        Bakul Shah <bakul@bitblocks.com>
Cc:        Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@phk.freebsd.dk>, Julian Elischer <julian@elischer.org>, FreeBSD current users <current@FreeBSD.ORG>, fs@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Anyone working on fsck?
Message-ID:  <3E769745.FA122633@mindspring.com>
References:  <200303172205.RAA18117@goliath.cnchost.com>

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Bakul Shah wrote:
> > I have been tending UNIX computers of all sorts for many years and
> > there is one bit of wisdom that has yet to fail me:
> >
> >       Every now and then, boot in single-user and run full fsck
> >       on all filesystems.
> >
> > If this had failed to be productive, I would have given up the
> > habit years ago, but it is still a good idea it seems.
> 
> Even now I use fsck in forground since the background fsck
> was not stable enough the last time I used it.  But I
> remember thinking fsck was taking too long for as long as I
> have used it (since 1981).

If your problem is "availability", then any "time > 0" counts
as "too long".

Taking the whole system offline, while the rest of the world
has gone into an electronic transaction frenzy because some
world event, and running a BG fsck is not really an option.


> Anything that runs for half hour or more in fg is likely to
> take longer in bg.  What happens if the system crashes again
> before it finishes?  Will bg fsck handle that?  Am I right in
> thinking that it can not save files in /lost+found?

It can, but it has to be changed; it's pretty ugly.  Your best
bet is to precreate "lost+found", and then modify the code to
allow you to ftruncate(2) a directory large, forcibly allocating
backing blocks for it (that was my last workaround to the problem).


> > Optimizing fsck is a valid project, I just wish it would be somebody
> > who would also finish the last 30% who would do it.
> 
> I am skeptical you will get more than a factor of 2
> improvement without changing the FS (but hey, that is 3 hours
> for Julian so I am sure he will be happy with that!).

I'm skeptical you will get a factor of 2.

-- Terry

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