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Command: fsdb | Section: 8 | Source: Digital UNIX | File: fsdb.8.gz
fsdb(8) System Manager's Manual fsdb(8)
NAME
fsdb - File system debugger
SYNOPSIS
/usr/sbin/fsdb [options] special
DESCRIPTION
Since fsdb reads the disk raw, it is able to circumvent normal file
system security. Extreme caution is advised in determining its avail-
ability on the system. Suggested permissions are 500, owned by bin.
You must be root to use this command.
The fsdb command can be used to repair a damaged file system after a
crash. It has conversions to translate block and i-numbers into their
corresponding disk addresses. Also included are mnemonic offsets to
access different parts of an inode. These greatly simplify the process
of correcting control block entries or descending the file system tree.
The fsdb command contains several error-checking routines to verify in-
ode and block addresses. These can be disabled if necessary by invok-
ing fsdb with the -o option.
The fsdb command reads a block at a time and works with raw as well as
block I/O. A buffer management routine is used to retain commonly used
blocks of data in order to reduce the number of read system calls. All
assignment operations result in an immediate write-through of the cor-
responding block. Note that in order to modify any portion of the
disk, fsdb must be invoked with the -w option.
Wherever possible, adb-like syntax was adopted to promote the use of
fsdb through familiarity.
Numbers are considered hexadecimal by default. However, you have con-
trol over how data is to be displayed or accepted. The base command
displays or sets the input/output base. Once set, all input will de-
fault to this base and all output will be shown in this base. The base
can be overridden temporarily for input by preceding hexadecimal num-
bers with '0x', preceding decimal numbers with '0t', or octal numbers
with '0'. Hexadecimal numbers beginning with a-f or A-F must be pre-
ceded with '0x' to distinguish them from commands.
Disk addressing by fsdb is at the byte level. However, fsdb offers
many commands to convert a desired inode, directory entry, block, su-
perblock etc. to a byte address. Once the address has been calculated,
fsdb will record the result in dot.
Several global values are maintained by fsdb: The current base (re-
ferred to as base); the current address (referred to as dot); the cur-
rent inode (referred to as inode); the current count (referred to as
count); and the current type (referred to as type). Most commands use
the preset value of dot in their execution. For example: > 2:inode
will first set the value of dot to 2, ':' will alert the start of a
command, and the inode command will set inode to 2. A count is speci-
fied after a ','. Once set, count will remain at this value until a
new command is encountered which will then reset the value back to 1
(the default). So, if > 2000,400/X is typed, 400 hex longs are listed
from 2000, and when completed, the value of dot will be 2000 + 400 *
sizeof (long). If you press the key, the output routine uses the cur-
rent values of dot, count, and type and displays 400 more hex longs.
An asterisk (*) causes the entire block to be displayed.
End of fragment, block and file are maintained by fsdb. When display-
ing data as fragments or blocks, an error message is displayed when the
end of fragment or block is reached. When displaying data using the
db, ib, directory, or file commands, an error message is displayed if
the end of file is reached. This is mainly needed to avoid passing the
end of a directory or file and getting unknown and unwanted results.
An example showing several commands and the use of follows: > 2:ino;
0:dir?d or > 2:ino; 0:db:block?d The two examples are synonymous for
getting to the first directory entry of the root of the file system.
Once there, subsequent use of the key (or +, -) advances to subsequent
entries. The following display is again synonymous: > 2:inode; :ls or
> :ls /
FLAGS
Display usage Override some error conditions Set prompt to string Open
for write
EXAMPLES
will display 2010 in decimal (use of fsdb as a calculator for complex
arithmetic). display i-number 386 in an inode format. This now be-
comes the current inode. changes the link count for the current inode
to 4. increments the link count by 1. display the creation time as a
hexadecimal long. display the modification time in time format. dis-
plays, in ASCII, block zero of the file associated with the current in-
ode. displays the first blocks worth of directory entries for the root
inode of this file system. It will stop prematurely if the eof is
reached. changes the current inode to that associated with the 5th di-
rectory entry (numbered from zero) of the current inode. The first
logical block of the file is then displayed in ASCII. displays the su-
perblock of this file system. displays cylinder group information and
summary for cylinder group 1. changes the i-number for the seventh di-
rectory slot in the root directory to 3. changes the name field in the
directory slot to name. displays the third block of the current inode
as directory entries. get fragment 3c3 and fill 20 type elements with
0x20. set the contents of address 2050 to 0xffffffff. 0xffffffff may
be truncated depending on the current type. will place the ASCII for
the string at 1c92434.
Expressions
The symbols recognized by fsdb are: update the value of dot by the cur-
rent value of type and display using the current value of count. nu-
meric expressions may be composed of +, -, *, and % operators (evalu-
ated left to right) and may use parentheses. Once evaluated, the value
of dot is updated. count indicator. The global value of count will be
updated to count. The value of count remains until a new command is
run. A count specifier of '*' will attempt to show the information of
a block. The default for count is 1. display in structured style with
format specifier f display in unstructured style with format specifier
f the value of dot. increment the value of dot by the expression e.
The amount actually incremented is dependent on the size of type: dot =
dot + e * sizeof (type) The default for e is 1. decrement the value of
dot by the expression e (see +). multiply the value of dot by the ex-
pression e. Multiplication and division do not use type. In the above
calculation of dot, consider the size of (type) to be 1. divide the
value of" dot by the expression e (see *). restore an address saved in
register name. name must be a single letter or digit. save an address
in register name. name must be a single letter or digit. display in-
dicator. If f is a legitimate format specifier, then the value of dot
is displayed using format specifier f. Otherwise, assignment is as-
sumed. assignment indicator. The address pointed to by dot has its
contents changed to the value of the expression e or to the ASCII rep-
resentation of the quoted ("") string s. This may be useful for chang-
ing directory names or ASCII file information. incremental assignment.
The address pointed to by dot has its contents incremented by expres-
sion e. decremental assignment. The address pointed to by dot has its
contents decremented by expression e.
Commands
A command must be prefixed by a ':' character. Only enough letters of
the command to uniquely distinguish it are needed. Multiple commands
may be entered on one line by separating them by a space, tab or ';'.
In order to view a potentially unmounted disk in a reasonable manner,
fsdb offers the cd, pwd, ls, and find commands. The functionality of
these commands substantially matches those of its UNIX counterparts.
The '*', '?', and '[-]' wild card characters are available. display or
set base. As stated above, all input and output is governed by the
current base. If the '=b' is left off, the current base is displayed.
Otherwise, the current base is set to b. Note that this is interpreted
using the old value of base, so to ensure correctness use the '0',
'0t', or '0x' prefix when changing the base. The default for base is
hexadecimal. convert the value of dot to a block address. change the
current directory to directory dir. The current values of inode and
dot are also updated. If no dir is specified, then change directories
to inode 2 ("/"). convert the value of dot to a cylinder group. If
the current inode is a directory, then the value of dot is converted to
a directory slot offset in that directory and dot now points to this
entry. the value of dot is taken as a relative block count from the
beginning of the file. The value of dot is updated to the first byte
of this block. find files by name or i-number. find recursively
searches directory dir and below for filenames whose i-number matches i
or whose name matches pattern n. Note that only one of the two options
(-name or -inum) may be used at one time. Also, the -print is not
needed or accepted. fill an area of disk with pattern p. The area of
disk is delimited by dot and count. convert the value of dot to a
fragment address. The only difference between the fragment command and
the block command is the amount that is able to be displayed. convert
the value of dot to an inode address. If successful, the current value
of inode will be updated as well as the value of dot. As a convenient
shorthand, if ':inode' appears at the beginning of the line, the value
of dot is set to the current inode and that inode is displayed in inode
format. list directories or files. If no file is specified, the cur-
rent directory is assumed. Either or both of the options may be used
(but, if used, must be specified before the filename specifiers).
Also, as stated above, wild card characters are available and multiple
arguments may be given. The long listing shows only the i-number and
the name; use the inode command with '?i' to get more information.
toggle the value of override. Some error conditions may be overridden
if override is toggled on. change the fsdb prompt to p. p must be
surrounded by (")s. display the current working directory. quit fsdb.
the value of dot is taken as a cylinder group number and then converted
to the address of the superblock in that cylinder group. As a short-
hand, ':sb' at the beginning of a line will set the value of dot to the
superblock and display it in superblock format. escape to shell
Inode Commands
In addition to the above commands, there are several commands that deal
with inode fields and operate directly on the current inode (they still
require the ':'). They may be used to more easily display or change
the particular fields.
The value of dot is only used by the ':db' and ':ib' commands. Upon
completion of the command, the value of dot is changed to point to that
particular field. For example, > :ln=+1 would increment the link count
of the current inode and set the value of dot to the address of the
link count field. access time. block size. creation time. use the
current value of dot as a direct block index, where direct blocks num-
ber from 0 - 11. In order to display the block itself, you need to
'pipe' this result into the block or fragment command. For example, >
1:db:block,20/X would get the contents of data block field 1 from the
inode and convert it to a block address. 20 longs are then displayed
in hexadecimal (see Formatted Output section). group id. use the cur-
rent value of dot as an indirect block index where indirect blocks num-
ber from 0 - 2. This will only get the indirect block itself (the
block containing the pointers to the actual blocks). Use the file com-
mand and start at block 12 to get to the actual blocks. link count.
modification time. mode. major device number. minor device number.
although listed here, this command actually operates on the directory
name field. Once poised at the desired directory entry (using the di-
rectory command), this command will allow you to change or display the
directory name. For example, > 7:dir:nm="foo" will get the 7th direc-
tory entry of the current inode and change its name to foo. Note that
names cannot be made larger than the field is set up for. If an at-
tempt is made, the string is truncated to fit and a warning message to
this effect is displayed. file size. user id.
Formatted Output
There are two styles and many format types. The two styles are struc-
tured and unstructured. Structured output is used to display inodes,
directories, superblocks and the like. Unstructured just displays raw
data. The following table shows the different ways of displaying: dis-
play as cylinder groups display as inodes display as directories dis-
play as superblocks display as bytes display as characters display as
octal shorts or longs display as decimal shorts or longs display as
hexadecimal shorts or longs
The format specifier immediately follows the '/' or '?' character. The
values displayed by '/b' and all '?' formats are displayed in the cur-
rent base. Also, type is appropriately updated upon completion.
FILES
Specifies the command path
RELATED INFORMATION
Commands: fsck(8) delim off
fsdb(8)