[SOLVED] Running fsck At Boot On Partitions Not In fstab

Woodsman · 11-23-2009, 06:34 PM

When forcing a fsck at boot (touch /etc/forcefsck), I would like the option to run fsck on all partitions of all hard drives and not just those partitions explicitly enumerated in fstab.

I don't see any related option in the fsck man page. The fsck command seems narrowly focused to work only with fstab partitions.

I have several systems. On some systems I have partitions I don't always use. Those partitions are not explicitly mounted through fstab. I mount them manually when I need them.

I wrote a shell script to check those partitions, but a direct method with fsck would be more sensible.

Please correct me if I misunderstand the fsck man page.

Thanks again.

lstamm · 11-23-2009, 09:02 PM

Why not write a script that you call from rc.local? By that time in the boot process, all services should be up and running, so all devices and volumes present should have been detected. You can check for UUIDs, and if the ones you are interested in are present, run fsck on them.

Woodsman · 11-23-2009, 09:03 PM

Running in rc.local is to late in the process for certain things I do.

mRgOBLIN · 11-23-2009, 10:19 PM

Why not set up a monthly cron-job to check the last fsck time (tune2fs -l /dev/whatever) unmount (if needed) and fsck to taste.

Then it can be done at some time that you don't have to wait around for.

voyciz · 11-23-2009, 10:51 PM

In /etc/rc.d/rc.S you could add something like this:

Code:

for part in $(sed '/name/d' /proc/partitions| awk '{print $4}')
do
    /sbin/fsck $FORCEFSCK -C -a $part
done

Woodsman · 11-27-2009, 02:28 PM

Quote:

In /etc/rc.d/rc.S you could add something like this:

I see no comments that my understanding about fsck is incorrect. As I alluded in my original post, I already had implemented a script solution. That solution includes a modification to rc.S and a new startup script.

rc.S Was:

Code:

if [ ! -r /etc/fastboot ]; then
  echo "Checking non-root filesystems:"
  /sbin/fsck $FORCEFSCK -C -R -A -a
fi

rc.S Changed To:

Code:

if [ ! -r /etc/fastboot ]; then
  echo "Checking non-root filesystems:"
  /sbin/fsck $FORCEFSCK -C -R -A -a
  # Check non-root filesystems not explicitly mounted in /etc/fstab.
  if [ -x /etc/rc.d/rc.fsck-unmounted ]; then
    /etc/rc.d/rc.fsck-unmounted
  fi
fi

/etc/rc.d/rc.fsck-unmounted

Code:

#!/bin/sh
# /etc/rc.d/rc.fsck-unmounted

# A script to fsck partitions not mounted in /etc/fstab.
# Render this script executable to run fsck on hard drive partitions
# not explicitly mounted in /etc/fstab.
# The script is intended to be run in rc.d/rc.S after running
# fsck -F on non-root systems.

if [ ! -r /etc/fastboot ]; then
  # Copied this snippet from rc.S:
  if [ -r /etc/forcefsck ]; then
    FORCEFSCK="-f"
  fi
  # Create a list of installed hard drives.
  HARD_DRIVES="`cat /proc/partitions | awk '{print $4}' | grep -v name | grep -v '[0-9]'`"
  for hd in $HARD_DRIVES; do
    # Create a list of hard drive partitions.
    PARTITIONS="`/sbin/fdisk -l /dev/$hd | grep -v swap | grep Linux | awk '{print $1}'`"
    for partition in $PARTITIONS; do
      # Determine whether the partition is mounted in /etc/fstab.
      MOUNTED="`grep \"$partition \" /etc/fstab`"
      # The partition might be listed in fstab but commented out.
      NOT_MOUNTED="`grep \"$partition \" /etc/fstab | grep '^#'`"
      if [ -z "$MOUNTED" ] || [ -n "$NOT_MOUNTED" ] ; then
        # echo "$partition would not be checked by forcefsck."
        # echo "Checking file system on $partition."
        /sbin/fsck $FORCEFSCK -T -C -a $partition
      fi
    done
  done
fi

I think a direct method through fsck would be more elegant, but my script solution seems to be working for me. Feel free to use or improve.