--- name: "reiserfsck" section: "8" platform: "linux" package: "reiserfsprogs" version: "1:3.6.27-9" release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/reiserfsck" --- # reiserfsck(8) The checking tool for the ReiserFS filesystem. ## NAME reiserfsck - The checking tool for the ReiserFS filesystem. ## SYNOPSIS **reiserfsck** \[ **-aprVy** \] \[ **--rebuild-sb** \| **--check** \| **--fix-fixable** \| **--rebuild-tree** \| **--clean-attributes** \] \[ **-j** \| **--journal** *device* \] \[ **-z** \| **--adjust-size** \] \[ **-n** \| **--nolog** \] \[ **-B** \| **--badblocks** *file* \] \[ **-l** \| **--logfile** *file* \] \[ **-q** \| **--quiet** \] \[ **-y** \| **--yes** \] \[ **-f** \| **--force** \] \[ **-S** \| **--scan-whole-partition** \] \[ **--no-journal-available** \] *device* ## DESCRIPTION **Reiserfsck** searches for a Reiserfs filesystem on a device, replays any necessary transactions, and either checks or repairs the file system. - *device* is the special file corresponding to a device or to a partition (e.g /dev/hdXX for an IDE disk partition or /dev/sdXX for a SCSI disk partition). ## OPTIONS - **--rebuild-sb** This option recovers the superblock on a Reiserfs partition. Normally you only need this option if mount reports "read\_super\_block: can't find a reiserfs file system" and you are sure that a Reiserfs file system is there. But remember that if you have used some partition editor program and now you cannot find a filesystem, probably something has gone wrong while repartitioning and the start of the partition has been changed. If so, instead of rebuilding the super block on a wrong place you should find the correct start of the partition first. - **--check** This default action checks filesystem consistency and reports, but does not repair any corruption that it finds. This option may be used on a read-only file system mount. - **--fix-fixable** This option recovers certain kinds of corruption that do not require rebuilding the entire file system tree (**--rebuild-tree**). Normally you only need this option if the **--check** option reports "corruption that can be fixed with **--fix-fixable**". This includes: zeroing invalid data-block pointers, correcting st\_size and st\_blocks for directories, and deleting invalid directory entries. - **--rebuild-tree** This option rebuilds the entire filesystem tree using leaf nodes found on the device. Normally you only need this option if the **reiserfsck --check** reports "Running with **--rebuild-tree** is required". You are strongly encouraged to make a backup copy of the whole partition before attempting the **--rebuild-tree** option. Once **reiserfsck --rebuild-tree** is started it must finish its work (and you should not interrupt it), otherwise the filesystem will be left in the unmountable state to avoid subsequent data corruptions. - **--clean-attributes** This option cleans reserved fields of Stat-Data items. There were days when there were no extended attributes in reiserfs. When they were implemented old partitions needed to be cleaned first -- reiserfs code in the kernel did not care about not used fields in its strutures. Thus if you have used one of the old (pre-attrbutes) kernels with a ReiserFS filesystem and you want to use extented attribues there, you should clean the filesystem first. - **--journal *device* , -j *device*** This option supplies the device name of the current file system journal. This option is required when the journal resides on a separate device from the main data device (although it can be avoided with the expert option **--no-journal-available**). - **--adjust-size, -z** This option causes **reiserfsck** to correct file sizes that are larger than the offset of the last discovered byte. This implies that holes at the end of a file will be removed. File sizes that are smaller than the offset of the last discovered byte are corrected by **--fix-fixable**. - **--badblocks** *file*, **-B** *file* This option sets the badblock list to be the list of blocks specified in the given \`file\`. The filesystem badblock list is cleared before the new list is added. It can be used with **--fix-fixable** to fix the list of badblocks (see **debugreiserfs -B**). If the device has bad blocks, every time it must be given with the **--rebuild-tree** option. - **--logfile** *file*, **-l** *file* This option causes **reiserfsck** to report any corruption it finds to the specified log file rather than to stderr. - **--nolog, -n** This option prevents **reiserfsck** from reporting any kinds of corruption. - **--quiet, -q** This option prevents **reiserfsck** from reporting its rate of progress. - **--yes, -y** This option inhibits **reiserfsck** from asking you for confirmation after telling you what it is going to do. It will assuem you confirm. For safety, it does not work with the **--rebuild-tree** option. - **-a**, **-p** These options are usually passed by fsck -A during the automatic checking of those partitions listed in /etc/fstab. These options cause **reiserfsck** to print some information about the specified filesystem, to check if error flags in the superblock are set and to do some light-weight checks. If these checks reveal a corruption or the flag indicating a (possibly fixable) corruption is found set in the superblock, then **reiserfsck** switches to the fix-fixable mode. If the flag indicating a fatal corruption is found set in the superblock, then **reiserfsck** finishes with an error. - **--force, -f** Force checking even if the file system seems clean. - **-V** This option prints the reiserfsprogs version and then exit. - **-r** This option does nothing at all; it is provided only for backwards compatibility. ## EXPERT OPTIONS DO NOT USE THESE OPTIONS UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU LOSE DATA AS A RESULT OF THESE OPTIONS. - **--no-journal-available** This option allows **reiserfsck** to proceed when the journal device is not available. This option has no effect when the journal is located on the main data device. NOTE: after this operation you must use **reiserfstune** to specify a new journal device. - **--scan-whole-partition, -S** This option causes **--rebuild-tree** to scan the whole partition but not only the used space on the partition. ## AN EXAMPLE OF USING reiserfsck 1\. You think something may be wrong with a reiserfs partition on /dev/hda1 or you would just like to perform a periodic disk check. 2\. Run **reiserfsck --check --logfile check.log /dev/hda1**. If **reiserfsck** **--check** exits with status 0 it means no errors were discovered. 3\. If **reiserfsck --check** exits with status 1 (and reports about fixable corruptions) it means that you should run **reiserfsck --fix-fixable --logfile** **fixable.log /dev/hda1**. 4\. If **reiserfsck --check** exits with status 2 (and reports about fatal corruptions) it means that you need to run **reiserfsck --rebuild-tree**. If **reiserfsck --check** fails in some way you should also run **reiserfsck** **--rebuild-tree**, but we also encourage you to submit this as a bug report. 5\. Before running **reiserfsck --rebuild-tree**, please make a backup of the whole partition before proceeding. Then run **reiserfsck --rebuild-tree** **--logfile rebuild.log /dev/hda1**. 6\. If the **reiserfsck --rebuild-tree** step fails or does not recover what you expected, please submit this as a bug report. Try to provide as much information as possible including your platform and Linux kernel version. We will try to help solve the problem. ## EXIT CODES **reiserfsck** uses the following exit codes:\ *0* - No errors.\ *1* - File system errors corrected.\ *2* - Reboot is needed.\ *4* - File system fatal errors left uncorrected,\ **reiserfsck --rebuild-tree** needs to be launched.\ *6* - File system fixable errors left uncorrected,\ **reiserfsck --fix-fixable** needs to be launched.\ *8* - Operational error.\ *16* - Usage or syntax error.\ ## AUTHOR This version of **reiserfsck** has been written by Vitaly Fertman \. ## BUGS Please report bugs to the ReiserFS developers \, providing as much information as possible--your hardware, kernel, patches, settings, all printed messages, the logfile; check the syslog file for any related information. ## TODO Faster recovering, signal handling. ## SEE ALSO [**mkreiserfs**(8)](/mkreiserfs/8.md), [**reiserfstune**(8)](/reiserfstune/8.md) [**resize\_reiserfs**(8)](/resize_reiserfs/8.md), [**debugreiserfs**(8)](/debugreiserfs/8.md),