fscheck

Download: fscheck.zip
This archive includes the filesystem checkers for ext2 (e2fsck) and minix (fsck.minix) partitions. These are a part of the FreeMiNT project (https://freemint.github.io).

fscheck is a small program that automatically detects the filesystem type of each drive, and launches the appropriate filesystem checker. It replaces the shell-script and /etc/fstab usually found in SpareMiNT/EasyMiNT, KGMD and similar unix-like setups. It is meant to be run from mint.cnf, checking the integrity of the filesystems while booting.

It has several advantages over the script/fstab method.

Much smaller, lighter and simpler.
Automatically adapts if you add/remove a partition, change filesystem type on a partition, or use removable devices.
Works with any type of MiNT setup, no "unix" needed.

It can also generate an fstab-style list of drives, which then can be used as input for the filesystem-check shell-script instead of the real fstab. This means that you can still use a shell-script if you prefer that, but no longer have to maintain fstab manually.

Configuration

fscheck needs to know which filesystem-checker to run for each filesystem type, and where to find these checkers. This is done in the configuration file fscheck.cnf. If this configuration file is located in the same directory as fscheck.prg itself it will be automatically loaded. Alternatively you can specify the path and name to the configuration file with the argument "-c".

Configuration file example

# Specify which fsck to run for each type
# of filesystems.
# The argument string must contain a "%d"
# somewhere, this will be replaced with
# the drive letter of the drive to check.
# Filesystem names with spaces must be in quotation
# marks.

#type	cmd				args
minix	bin/fsck.mnx	-p %d:
ext2	bin/fsck.e2	-y -v %d:
#dos	bin/fsck.fat	-n -v %d:

# By default all drives except A, B and U are checked.

# Optionally specify which drives to check. This means that
# *only* these drives will be checked. 
#drives	c,d

# Optionally specify drives to not check. All drives except
# A, B, U and the ones listed below will be checked.
#skip c,d,e

If you don't specify the path to the filesystem checkers, fscheck will look in it's current working directory. This is by default the directory fscheck.prg is located in, it can be changed with the "- cwd" argument.

On a simple MiNT setup you would typically put fscheck.prg and the filesystem checkers in the same directory - together with fscheck.cnf - and just run fscheck from mint.cnf:

exec u:/c/mint/fscheck/fscheck.prg

A simple configuration file that checks and repairs all ext2 partitions would then look like this:

ext2 e2fsck -y -v %d:

...assuming that e2fsck is located in the same directory as fscheck.prg. The output from fscheck and e2fsc will then look like this when everything's OK (example from my Falcon):

Checking filesystem integrity...
Drive c: dos: No action.
Drive d: dos: No action.
Drive e: dos: No action.
Drive f: ext2: bin\fsck.e2 -y -v f:
f_: clean, 14478/123392 files, 114665/246276 blocks
Drive g: ext2: bin\fsck.e2 -y -v g:
g_: clean, 19591/123392 files, 112174/246276 blocks
Drive h: dos: No action.
Drive i: dos: No action.

Usage

fscheck.prg
Usage: fscheck.prg -h -q -l -fstab -c <configfile> -cwd 
<directory> -drives <list> -skip <drives> -fs 
<filesystems> -skipfs <filesystems>
All arguments are optional.
-h - Display this text.
-q - Quiet, fscheck.prg will not output any text.
-c <configfile> - if not specified fscheck.cnf will be loaded from
     the current directory.
-cwd <directory> - fscheck will by default set it's current directory
     to the directory it resides in. This can be overriden with this
     option.
-drives <list> - "list" is a comma-separated list of the drives
     that should be checked. All drives except A, B and U will be
     checked by default. Overrides the "drives" setting in the
     configuration file.
-skip <list> - a comma-separated list of drives to not check.
     Overrides the "skip" setting in the configuration file.
-fs <list> - "list" is a comma-separated list of filesystems. All
     drives with this filesystem type will be checked, unless filtered
     out by the drives/skip/skipfs parameters.
-skipfs <list> - a comma-separated list of filesystems. All drives
     with this filesystem will not be checked.
-l - List drives and their filesystem type. Which drives to include
     is specified by the drives/skip/fs/skipfs parameters. Default is
     to list all drives.
-fstab - as above, except that the list is in the same format as the
     /etc/fstab file.

Oct. 2025, joska@online.no