fsck

[Guest statyk]

What is the best way to have your system check the file system for errors? Maybe at startup or only when it finds an error? And what is the most common switches for a basic check with fsck? Just started using Mandrake 9.2 and trying to make sure its up and running with minimal problems. (hopefully)

[chris z]

to read all about fsck, you can go HERE. it's basically the manpage in an easy on the eyes html format. or, if you like plain text, just do man fsck in a terminal.

 

IMHO, you shouldn't need worry about checking the system with fsck on any kind of regular basis. Linux handles things differently than Windows, so there's no need for Windows like routine maintenance, such as defragging, scandisc, cleaning temp folders, etc. fsck is set to run as a startup service in Mandrake by default, after X amount of reboots (usually something like 20-30) or after a forced/unclean shutdown. if you are going to use it, please read the info carefully. fsck can actually f*ck up your system if you're not careful with it. (IE: it needs to be run on an unmounted partition, for starters.)

 

i'd say, as long as your system is running smoothly, don't worry about disk maintenance. at the most, you might want to occassionally look into cleaning up .log files in /var/log because they can get quite large over time. to do that, just simply delete any .log files that are taking up too much space, or if you want to turn logging off, just type service syslog stop (or, service syslogd stop) in terminal as root.

 

Chris