Solved fsck -fy without specifying a file system: force, but no check

[Cath O'Deray]

From <https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=fsck&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD#DESCRIPTION>:

… If no file systems are specified, fsck reads the table /etc/fstab to determine which file systems to check. Only partitions in /etc/fstab that are mounted "rw", "rq" or "ro" and that have non-zero pass number are checked. File systems with pass number 1 (normally just the root file system) are always checked one at a time. …

Below, UFS and -f for force. fsck -fy does not perform a check:

Am I missing something, or is this a bug?

 

[SirDice]

Am I missing something,

and that have non-zero pass number are checked.

 

[Cath O'Deray]

Does -f not (forcefully) ignore that condition?

IIRC I have, previously, always seen UFS (and other file systems such as msdosfs for the ESP) checked in single user mode in response to fsck -fy …

 

[Cath O'Deray]

… ah, OK, I blindly added the two zeros to the UFS line without understanding the impact in this context.

(This is an extraordinary christhegeek -ish installation where the UFS line lacked values.)

 

[SirDice]

(and other file systems such as msdosfs for the ESP)

Unlikely as fsck(8) can only handle UFS.

 

[Cath O'Deray]

… the UFS line lacked values.)

Now I remember:

The first line of /etc/fstab seems to be incomplete.

(In September, I corrected the line properly. Today, I misused zeros.)

---

… fsck(8) can only handle UFS.

Loosely speaking, it triggers whatever checker is appropriate.

 

[Erichans]

… ah, OK, I blindly added the two zeros to the UFS line without understanding the impact in this context.

(This is an extraordinary christhegeek -ish installation where the UFS line lacked values.)

(In September, I corrected the line properly. Today, I misused zeros.)
[...]
Loosely speaking, it triggers whatever checker is appropriate.

Well, "man"-unally speaking, fsck(8) :

The fsck utility invokes file system-specific programs to check the spe-
cial devices listed in the fstab(5) file or in the command line for con-
sistency.

I think those zeros (when apropriately being zeros) are the responsibility of the sysadmin/issuer of xxxBSD. However, in this case/thread, regarding the sixth field, you probably didn't "misuse" anything, fstab(5) :

If the sixth field is not present or is zero, a value of zero is returned
and fsck(8) and quotacheck(8) will assume that the file system does not
need to be checked.

as I presume even for a "This is an extraordinary christhegeek -ish installation where the UFS line lacked values." the values read from /etc/fstab are being read correctly by fsck(8) by means of (as stated in fstab(5) ):

The proper way to read records from fstab is to use the routines
getfsent(3), getfsspec(3), getfstype(3), and getfsfile(3).

P.S. just curious (o.a. referring to your first screenshot with cat /etc/fstab) : is "your" /etc/fstab usually/often beheaded?
(mine has a fully commented-out header as first line with the apropriate field names)

 

[Cath O'Deray]

Thanks, my bad, I probably should have said "lacks a 1 in the sixth field" or words to that effect.

is "your" /etc/fstab usually/often beheaded?

No. I never remove the commented header, please see for example <https://forums.freebsd.org/posts/531322>.

 

[Alain De Vos]

When i do "fsck -f -y" nothing happens.
Only "fsck -f -y device" does something.
Is this the expected behavior ?

 

[Cath O'Deray]

When i do "fsck -f -y" nothing happens.

cat /etc/fstab

tunefs -p /

 

[a6h]

When i do "fsck -f -y" nothing happens.

Without "device", it checks /etc/fstab, and it proceeds if a partition meets this criteria
1. Options: 'rw', 'rq' or 'ro'
AND
2. Pass# != 0
-- The sixth field in the fstab(5) file, i.e. fs_passno

Note:
Option "-f" also check clean filesystems. Without that, it doesn't check clean ones.

 

[Alain De Vos]

Output of tunefs:

tunefs: POSIX.1e ACLs: (-a)                                disabled 
tunefs: NFSv4 ACLs: (-N)                                   disabled 
tunefs: MAC multilabel: (-l)                               disabled 
tunefs: soft updates: (-n)                                 enabled 
tunefs: soft update journaling: (-j)                       enabled 
tunefs: gjournal: (-J)                                     disabled 
tunefs: trim: (-t)                                         disabled 
tunefs: maximum blocks per file in a cylinder group: (-e)  4096 
tunefs: average file size: (-f)                            16384 
tunefs: average number of files in a directory: (-s)       64 
tunefs: minimum percentage of free space: (-m)             8% 
tunefs: space to hold for metadata blocks: (-k)            6400 
tunefs: optimization preference: (-o)                      time 
tunefs: volume label: (-L)

I don't see directly something which is influential on fsck.

fstab contains

/dev/ada2p9 /bootpartition ufs late,ro 0,0

 

[Cath O'Deray]

Thanks,

/dev/ada2p9 /bootpartition ufs late,ro 0,0

You can make the sixth value 1 – compare with <https://forums.freebsd.org/posts/531322>.

 

[SirDice]

There shouldn't be a comma between the last two fields. Fields are separated by whitespace (spaces and/or tabs). And yes, your root filesystem should have a pass of 1. Additional filesystems can have a pass of 2, 3, etc. Those will be done in order of their pass number, you don't want to fsck(8) too many filesystems at once (that'll perform quite badly).