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Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2010 18:35:42 +0200
From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de>
To: Gary Kline <kline@thought.org>
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Cc: FreeBSD Mailing List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject: Re: before i even =touch= my server again....
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On Tue, 22 Jun 2010 22:14:20 -0700, Gary Kline <kline@thought.org> wrote:
> fsck seemed to fix most slices, but a check as root 
> told me the /var was//IS still dirty.   Q:  how can i umount /var 
> and run fsck -y without going single-user?  remember that in order to 
> regain keyboard control of ethic i have to crawl under deskm, muck
> around, etc.

There is a way that can be used (allthough it usually should not):

	# umount -f /var
	# fsck /var

Of course, all write attempts to /var will then fail. If /var is
in a clean state again, run

	# mount /var

to make it accessible again. Before you re-mount, make sure that
there are no offending files in the mountpoint /var (which should
be empty while unmounted).


> how does fsck work, backgrounded? 

Bad. :-) No, seriously, I just don't trust it. I can stand downtine,
so I better let fsck do its work on unmounted partitions than letting
it run in the background, while the system boots up with possibly
dirty partitions... and you never know what else can happen. I
usually take the time neccessary for a foreground-fsck - it's not
that it needs to be done twice a day. :-)





-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...