Filesystem Checking

Filesystem Checking

The fsck command checks EFS filesystem consistency and data integrity. Filesystems are usually checked automatically when the system is booted. Except for the Root filesystem, filesystems must be unmounted while being checked. You might want to invoke fsck manually at these times:

before making a backup
after doing a restore
after doing disk maintenance
before installing software
before manually mounting a dirty filesystem
when fsck runs automatically and has many errors

Several procedures for invoking fsck manually are described in the section "Checking EFS Filesystem Consistency With fsck" in Chapter 5. A detailed explanation of the checks performed by fsck and the options it presents when it finds problems are provided in Appendix A, "Repairing EFS Filesystem ProblemsWith fsck."

The xfs_check command checks XFS filesystem consistency. It is normally used only when a filesystem consistency problem is suspected. See the xfs_check(1M) reference page for more information.

The fsck_cachefs command checks CacheFS filesystem consistency. It is automatically run when CacheFS filesystems are mounted. See the fsck_cachefs(1M) reference page and the ONC3/NFS Administrator's Guide for more information.