# ext3 fsck after approx 30 or so bootups

## signal11

one thing that i have noticed is that after i have booted up my machine a (significant approx 30) number of times, fsck automagically runs on the ext3 partition. the root file-system on my machine is pretty large, and it takes forever to boot.

i see this during boot:

```
EXT3-fs warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended
```

ofcourse the question now is: "is it possible to treat only abnormal shutdowns as points where a fsck might be required ? if the machine was rebooted say with 'reboot' then don't run fsck at all..."

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## mikegpitt

You are correct, by default ext3 filesystems will run an fsck every 30 boots.  I'm not sure how to make this run conditional, but I do know how to turn it off completely.

Example:

```
tune2fs -c 0 -i 0 /dev/sda3
```

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## signal11

 *mikegpitt wrote:*   

> You are correct, by default ext3 filesystems will run an fsck every 30 boots.  I'm not sure how to make this run conditional, but I do know how to turn it off completely.
> 
> Example:
> 
> ```
> ...

 

thanks ! i read the man-page for tune2fs, and the warnings there are pretty draconian...i guess, i will let the things be until it becomes too much pain to bear with.

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## Hu

How often are you rebooting, and why?  Outside of testing development kernels, I cannot see a reason to reboot the system often enough that this would matter much.

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## signal11

 *Hu wrote:*   

> How often are you rebooting, and why?  Outside of testing development kernels, I cannot see a reason to reboot the system often enough that this would matter much.

 

basically some kernel programming (device-drivers and such)

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## mv

In such a case, I would suggest only time-dependent checks, e.g. once every few months.

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## Hu

You may want to look into building your test code as a module so you can unload and reload it without rebooting the whole system.  :Wink: 

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