tags 566072 +patch thanks Hi,
According to the v2.17-ReleaseNotes, this is a feature, and the recommended way of dealing with potentially nonexistent filesystems is to use the nofail option. related commit: http://git.kernel.org/?p=utils/util-linux-ng/util-linux-ng.git;a=commitdiff;h=1bb516c34bf42d2ae9dc4aa40ae34b0df4e464a7 and manpage update: http://git.kernel.org/?p=utils/util-linux-ng/util-linux-ng.git;a=commitdiff;h=0779255c1392b0f29874c384b4dae426e0449773 So, assuming that we doesn't want to diverge from upstream, the way to go is to add a remark in the Debian release notes, and display the offending device right before the hard failure. Note that the nonexistent+nofail check is done by fsck itself (eg. not fsck.vfat or any other external binary) and only when invoked with -A. Sample output with the attached patch: $ ./fsck -A fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17 e2fsck 1.41.12 (17-May-2010) /dev/sda3 is mounted. WARNING!!! The filesystem is mounted. If you continue you ***WILL*** cause ***SEVERE*** filesystem damage. Do you really want to continue (y/n)? no check aborted. e2fsck 1.41.12 (17-May-2010) e2fsck: need terminal for interactive repairs --> /dev/disk/by-id/usb-Sony_Sony_DSC-part1: device nonexistent and declared without nofail dosfsck 3.0.9, 31 Jan 2010, FAT32, LFN open: No such file or directory Without -A the behaviour remains the same (which makes sense): $ ./fsck /dev/disk/by-id/usb-Sony_Sony_DSC-part1 fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17 dosfsck 3.0.9, 31 Jan 2010, FAT32, LFN open: No such file or directory -S
--- util-linux-2.17.2.orig/fsck/fsck.c 2010-09-29 23:22:47.000000000 +0200 +++ util-linux-2.17.2/fsck/fsck.c 2010-09-29 23:52:38.000000000 +0200 @@ -1033,6 +1033,11 @@ static int check_all(NOARGS) fs->flags |= FLAG_DONE; continue; } + if ((!device_exists(fs->device)) && + (!opt_in_list("nofail", fs->opts))) + fprintf(stderr, + _("%s: device nonexistent and declared without nofail\n"), + fs->device); /* * If a filesystem on a particular device has * already been spawned, then we need to defer