Linux Tips: force fsck run during the next reboot

Here is a quick tip that will show how you can tell your Linux system to perform a fsck on its partitions on the next reboot. Normally this will happen by default, after some time as configured in the filesystem at creation time (or changed later): after a number of days or a number of filesystem mounts. If you are using ext3 filesystems you can check these intervals configured with:

tune2fs -l <device>
...
Mount count:              5
Maximum mount count:      37
...
Last checked:             Sat May 17 16:39:18 2008
Check interval:           15552000 (6 months)
Next check after:         Thu Nov 13 15:39:18 2008

If for some reason, you want to force the system to run fsck on the next reboot just create an empty file called forcefsck in your system / like this:

touch /forcefsck

During the first reboot the system will run fsck and after completing this it will also remove the /forcefsck file from the system.

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