btrfs-check(8)

NAME

   btrfs-check - check or repair an unmounted btrfs filesystem

SYNOPSIS

   btrfs check [options] <device>

DESCRIPTION

   The filesystem checker is used to verify structural integrity of a
   filesystem and attempt to repair it if requested. The filesystem must
   be unmounted.

   By default, btrfs check will not modify the device but you can reaffirm
   that by the option --readonly.

   btrfsck is an alias of btrfs check command and is now deprecated.

       Warning
       Do not use --repair unless you are adviced to by a developer, an
       experienced user or accept the fact that fsck cannot possibly fix
       all sorts of damage that could happen to a filesystem because of
       software and hardware bugs.

   The structural integrity check verifies if internal filesystem objects
   or data structures satisfy the constraints, point to the right objects
   or are correctly connected together.

   There are several cross checks that can detect wrong reference counts
   of shared extents, backrefrences, missing extents of inodes, directory
   and inode connectivity etc.

   The amount of memory required can be high, depending on the size of the
   filesystem, smililarly the run time.

SAFE OR ADVISORY OPTIONS

   -b|--backup
       use the first valid set of backup roots stored in the superblock

       This can be combined with --super if some of the superblocks are
       damaged.

   --check-data-csum
       verify checksums of data blocks

       This expects that the filesystem is otherwise OK, so this is
       basically and offline scrub but does not repair data from spare
       coipes.

   --chunk-root <bytenr>
       use the given offset bytenr for the chunk tree root

   -E|--subvol-extents <subvolid>
       show extent state for the given subvolume

   -p|--progress
       indicate progress at various checking phases

   --qgroup-report
       verify qgroup accounting and compare against filesystem accounting

   -r|--tree-root <bytenr>
       use the given offset bytenr for the tree root

   --readonly
       (default) run in read-only mode, this option exists to calm
       potential panic when users are going to run the checker

   -s|--super <superblock>
       use 'superblock'th superblock copy, valid values are 0, 1 or 2 if
       the respective superblock offset is within the device size

       This can be used to use a different starting point if some of the
       primary superblock is damaged.

DANGEROUS OPTIONS

   --repair
       enable the repair mode and attempt to fix problems where possible

   --init-csum-tree
       create a new checksum tree and recalculate checksums in all files

           Note
           Do not blindly use this option to fix checksum mismatch
           problems.

   --init-extent-tree
       build the extent tree from scratch

           Note
           Do not use unless you know what you're doing.

   --mode=MODE
       select mode of operation regarding memory and IO

       The MODE can be one of original and lowmem. The original mode is
       mostly unoptimized regarding memory consumpption and can lead to
       out-of-memory conditions on large filesystems. The possible
       workaround is to export the block device over network to a machine
       with enough memory. The low memory mode is supposed to address the
       memory consumption, at the cost of increased IO when it needs to
       re-read blocks when needed. This may increase run time.

       Note
       lowmem mode does not work with --repair yet, and is still
       considered experimental.

EXIT STATUS

   btrfs check returns a zero exit status if it succeeds. Non zero is
   returned in case of failure.

AVAILABILITY

   btrfs is part of btrfs-progs. Please refer to the btrfs wiki
   http://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org for further details.

SEE ALSO

   mkfs.btrfs(8), btrfs-scrub(8), btrfs-rescue(8)

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Free and Open Source Software