Maintenance involves running the Filesystem Check program (FSCK). Ifthe system is rebooted frequently, as is the case with laptops or workstations, or the partition is unmounted and mounted frequently, this will normally happen automatically. EXT3 and EXT4 filesystems default to every 39 mounts when originally created unless otherwise requested. This may be changed using the tune2fs utility which can also set a time-dependent check interval instead of mount count dependent.
Although it is possible, periodic checking should not be disabled. Joumaling filesystems in general are always marked clean and so Linux will not recognize when such a system may have problems.
Ifyour system is always up and the partition in question is never unmounted, you may want to arrange for a periodic reboot of the system, either via the shutdown -rF command that forces a filesystem check, or by using tune2fs to set a time-dependent check interval that is less than the reboot interval. Of course, ifproblems are found, you must have access to the physical console in order to answer the questions about how to fix them.
An alternative is to never check the filesystem except when problems are obvious or likely. Normally, after a failure that could potentially cause filesystem infrastructure errors, the system will need to be rebooted anyway, if it isn't forced. This is the time to run the FSCK manually in maintenance (single user) mode, or to force the check by having a short, time-dependent check interval set. Again, ifproblems arise, someone will need access to the physical console in order to answer questions.
To speed up periodic filesystem checks, use EXT4 instead of EXT3. Inmost circumstances, checks are anywhere from 2 to 20 times faster for EXT4.
