[Discuss] xfs repair

[Edward Ned Harvey (blu)]

> From: discuss-bounces+blu=nedharvey.com at blu.org [mailto:discuss-
> bounces+blu=nedharvey.com at blu.org] On Behalf Of Stephen Adler
> 
> I've done a bit of searching on the web
> to find out what is the customary way to check xfs file systems. with
> the other file systems, you would get a forced fsck ever N number of
> mounts thus repairing any "gunk" in the file system. With XFS, no fsck
> is performed. fsck.xfs will return passed and not execute.

XFS is a journaling filesystem with metadata journaling.  So depending on how they designed it, it *may* be completely sane to never fsck.

I'm going to speak by example for a moment - ZFS has no fsck, because everything is checked on the fly at all times, it's impossible to have undetected filesystem corruption of any kind.  Instead, they have "scrub" which checks everything, just to make sure nothing landed on disk corrupted and later to be discovered at runtime.  EXT3/4 are journaling filesystems, but they still fsck sometimes.

I don't know enough specifically about XFS to recommend you need or don't need fsck.  I am responding to your apparent difficulty in believing fsck isn't necessary.  I'm letting you know without any doubt, that it's possible for fsck to be obsoleted, as it is in some other filesystems.  I just can't say with certainty, whether or not XFS is one of those.