e2fsprogs

e2fsprogs (sometimes called the e2fs programs) is a set of utilities for maintaining the ext2, ext3 and ext4 file systems. Since those file systems are often the default for Linux distributions, it is commonly considered to be essential software.

Included with e2fsprogs are:

• e2fsck, an fsck program that checks for and corrects inconsistencies
• mke2fs, used for creating ext2, ext3 and ext4 file systems
• resize2fs, which can expand and shrink ext2, ext3 and ext4 file systems
• tune2fs, used to modify file system parameters
• dumpe2fs, which prints superblock and block group information.
• debugfs, used to manually view or modify internal structures of the file system

Many of these utilities are based on the libext2fs library.

Despite what its name might suggest, the e2fsprogs work not only with ext2 and ext3 but also with ext4. Although ext3's journaling capability can reduce the need to use e2fsck, it is sometimes still necessary to help protect from kernel bugs or bad hardware.

With ext4 the e2fsck runtime should come down considerably.

As the userspace companion for the ext2, ext3, and ext4 drivers in the Linux kernel, the e2fsprogs are most commonly used with GNU/Linux. However, they have been ported to other systems, such as FreeBSD and Darwin.

External links

• e2fsprogs home page at SourceForge
• e2fsprogs git repository
• Design and Implementation of the Second Extended Filesystem