How the File System State Is Recorded
The fsck command uses a state flag, which is stored in the superblock,
to record the condition of the file system. This flag is used by
the fsck command to determine whether a file system needs to be checked
for consistency. The flag is used by the /sbin/rcS script during booting and by
the fsck -m command. If you ignore the result from the fsck -m
command, all file systems can be checked regardless of the setting of the
state flag.
For a description of the superblock, see Superblock.
The possible state flag values are described in the following table.
Table 22-1 Values of File System State Flags
State Flag Value |
Description |
|---|
FSACTIVE
|
Indicates a mounted file system that has modified data in memory. A mounted
file system with this state flag indicates that user data or metadata would
be lost if power to the system is interrupted. |
FSBAD |
Indicates
that the file system contains inconsistent file system data. |
FSCLEAN |
Indicates an undamaged,
cleanly unmounted file system. |
FSLOG |
Indicates that the file system has logging enabled.
A file system with this flag set is either mounted or unmounted. If
a file system has logging enabled, the only flags that it can
have are FSLOG or FSBAD. A file system that has logging disable
can have FSACTIVE, FSSTABLE, or FSCLEAN. |
FSSTABLE |
Indicates an idle mounted
file system. A mounted file system with this state flag indicates
that neither user data nor metadata would be lost if power to the
system is interrupted. |