Installation guide

Repairing an XFS File System

Note

While XFS file systems can be grown while mounted, their size cannot be reduced at all.

For more information about growing a file system, refer to man xfs_growfs.

9.5. Repairing an XFS File System

To repair an XFS file system, use xfs_repair, as in:

xfs_repair /dev/device

The xfs_repair utility is highly scalable, and is designed to repair even very large file systems with

many inodes efficiently. Note that unlike other Linux file systems, xfs_repair does not run at boot

time, even when an XFS file system was not cleanly unmounted. In the event of an unclean unmount,

xfs_repair simply replays the log at mount time, ensuring a consistent file system.

Note

The xfs_repair utility cannot repair an XFS file system with a dirty log. To clear the log, mount

and unmount the XFS file system. If the log is corrupt and cannot be replayed, use the -L option

("force log zeroing") to clear the log, i.e. xfs_repair -L /dev/device. Note, however, that

this may result in further corruption or data loss.

For more information about repairing an XFS file system, refer to man xfs_repair.

9.6. Suspending an XFS File System

To suspend or resume write activity to a file system, use xfs_freeze. Suspending write activity

allows hardware-based device snapshots to be used to capture the file system in a consistent state.

Note

The xfs_freeze utility is provided by the xfsprogs package, which is only available on

x86_64.

To suspend (i.e. freeze) an XFS file system, use:

xfs_freeze -f /mount/point

To unfreeze an XFS file system, use:

xfs_freeze -u /mount/point

When taking an LVM snapshot, it is not necessary to use xfs_freeze to suspend the file system

first. Rather, the LVM management tools will automatically suspend the XFS file system before taking

the snapshot.