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 21–1 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. |