Enhancement: Prompt to check a busy file system on next reboot

[Daniel Ellis]

Binary package hint: gnome-disk-utility

When selecting "Check File System" on a file system which is is use, you currently get an error stating the device is busy.

If a disk was busy, Disk Utility could prompt the user and ask if the file system should be scheduled for a check on the next reboot.

I have just found out about the special file "/forcefsck" (http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-force-fsck-on-the-next-reboot-or-boot-sequence/) which forces the file system to be checked on the next reboot, and due to this I think this is a potentially simple implementation. Disk Utility would just have to prompt and create that file.

[Tuomas Heino (iheino+ub)]

Simply creating that file would not be entirely enough. As in while that seems to force the fsck, said file does not get removed automatically. And maybe even shouldn't be removed, unless it was created by gdu.

[Daniel Ellis (danellisuk)]

I have just tried this on Ubuntu 10.04 and 11.10 and both systems automatically remove the /forcefsck file after the reboot.

I haven't found any official documentation for this file yet, so my concern is whether the behavior of this file is distribution specific.

It would be great if this method is standard amongst distributions, then I think this would be a suitable solution.