diff --git a/misc/ChangeLog b/misc/ChangeLog index 334695bc..d6cedee0 100644 --- a/misc/ChangeLog +++ b/misc/ChangeLog @@ -1,3 +1,8 @@ +2005-06-20 Theodore Ts'o + + * e2image.8.in: Clean up e2image man page, mostly based on + suggestions from Benno Schulenberg. + 2005-06-16 Theodore Ts'o * mke2fs.c (PRS): Fix missing close parenthesis from bad inode diff --git a/misc/e2image.8.in b/misc/e2image.8.in index 29bce715..53187794 100644 --- a/misc/e2image.8.in +++ b/misc/e2image.8.in @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ .\" .TH E2IMAGE 8 "@E2FSPROGS_MONTH@ @E2FSPROGS_YEAR@" "E2fsprogs version @E2FSPROGS_VERSION@" .SH NAME -e2image \- Save critical ext2/ext3 filesystem data to a file +e2image \- Save critical ext2/ext3 filesystem metadata to a file .SH SYNOPSIS .B e2image [ @@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ e2image \- Save critical ext2/ext3 filesystem data to a file .SH DESCRIPTION The .B e2image -program will save critical filesystem data on the ext2 filesystem located on +program will save critical ext2 or ext3 filesystem metadata located on .I device to a file specified by .IR image-file . @@ -25,8 +25,8 @@ and .BR debugfs , by using the .B \-i -option to those programs. This can be used by an expert in assisting -the recovery of catastrophically corrupted filesystems. In the future, +option to those programs. This can assist an expert in +recovering catastrophically corrupted filesystems. In the future, e2fsck will be enhanced to be able to use the image file to help recover a badly damaged filesystem. .PP @@ -37,20 +37,20 @@ is \-, then the output of will be sent to standard output, so that the output can be piped to another program, such as .BR gzip (1). -(Note that is currently only supported when +(Note that this is currently only supported when creating a raw image file using the .B \-r option, since the process of creating a normal image file currently -requires random-access access to the file, which can not be done using a +requires random access to the file, which cannot be done using a pipe. This restriction will hopefully be lifted in a future version of .BR e2image .) .PP -It is a very good idea to periodically (at boot time and -every week or so) to create image files for all of -filesystems on a system, as well as saving the partition -layout (which can be generated using the using +It is a very good idea to create image files for all of +filesystems on a system and save the partition +layout (which can be generated using the .B fdisk \-l -command). Ideally the image file should be stored on some filesystem +command) at regular intervals --- at boot time, and/or every week or so. +The image file should be stored on some filesystem other that the filesystem whose data it contains, to ensure that its data is accessible in the case where the filesystem has been badly damaged. @@ -62,13 +62,13 @@ Hence, if the image file needs to be copied to another location, it should either be compressed first or copied using the .B \-\-sparse=always -option to GNU version of +option to the GNU version of .BR cp . .PP The size of an ext2 image file depends primarily on the size of the filesystems and how many inodes are in use. For a typical 10 gigabyte filesystem, with 200,000 inodes in use out of 1.2 million inodes, the -image file be approximately 35 megabytes; a 4 gigabyte filesystem with +image file will be approximately 35 megabytes; a 4 gigabyte filesystem with 15,000 inodes in use out of 550,000 inodes will result in a 3 megabyte image file. Image files tend to be quite compressible; an image file taking up 32 megabytes of space on @@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ back to the device in emergency situations. .B WARNING!!!! The .B \-I -option should only be used as desperation measure when other +option should only be used as a desperation measure when other alternatives have failed. If the filesystem has changed since the image file was created, data .B will @@ -109,9 +109,9 @@ filesystem itself!) Secondly, the raw image file also includes indirect blocks and directory blocks, which the standard image file does not have, although this may change in the future. .PP -Raw image files are sometimes used when sending filesystems to as part -of bug reports to e2fsprogs. When used in this capacity, the -recommended command is (replace hda1 with appropriate device): +Raw image files are sometimes used when sending filesystems to the maintainer +as part of bug reports to e2fsprogs. When used in this capacity, the +recommended command is as follows (replace hda1 with the appropriate device): .PP .br \ \fBe2image \-r /dev/hda1 \- | bzip2 > hda1.e2i.bz2\fR @@ -124,7 +124,11 @@ may wish to keep confidential. To address this concern, the option can be specified. This will cause .B e2image to scramble directory entries and zero out any unused portions -of the directory blocks before writing them to the image file. +of the directory blocks before writing the image file. However, +the +.B \-s +option will prevent analysis of problems related to hash-tree indexed +directories. .PP .SH AUTHOR .B e2image