e2fsprogs

The ext2ed editor uses a hierarchical command dispatch system. When you enter a command, the dispatch() function searches for a matching handler using a specific priority order. This allows the editor to provide context-sensitive commands that override general ones.

Dispatch Priority (Highest to Lowest):

1. Type-specific commands: Commands associated with the current_type (the specific filesystem object currently being inspected, e.g., an inode or a block group). These always take precedence.
2. Ext2-specific commands: Commands available when an ext2 filesystem is actively being edited.
3. General commands: Commands that are always available regardless of the current context.

If a command is found in a higher-priority tier, the lower-tier command with the same name is ignored. If no match is found in any tier, an Error: Unknown command message is displayed.

You can launch the ext2ed editor and immediately target a specific filesystem device. If you provide the -w flag, the editor will enable write privileges (calling enable_write) upon startup. If a device path is provided as a positional argument, the editor will automatically execute the set_device command for that path.

Command Syntax:

# Open a device in read-only mode
ext2ed /dev/sdb1

# Open a device with write privileges enabled
ext2ed -w /dev/sdb1

The files in util/ucd/ are part of the Unicode Character Database (UCD) for Unicode version 11.0.0. These files are not distributed with the full e2fsprogs package because of their size. They are only required when performing a Unicode version update to regenerate the lib/ext2fs/utf8data.h header file.

To regenerate the header, you must obtain the full set of UCD files from the official Unicode website or the Linux kernel source tree and place them in the appropriate directory. The files in this repository are renamed with a suffix indicating the Unicode version (e.g., UnicodeData-11.0.0.txt).

ext2ed relies on the ncurses library for terminal output. Ensure your environment is configured correctly to avoid display issues:

• Old ncurses versions: If using ncurses around version 1.8.5, you must enable the OLD_NCURSES compile-time option in the Makefile. For versions 1.9.2c and newer, do not use this flag.
• Terminfo Database: Ensure the ncurses terminfo database is accessible. If you see references to /etc/termcap on startup, the terminfo database is not being found correctly.
• Linux Console: If running in a Linux console, set your TERM environment variable to linux.
• Custom Terminfo Path: If using the precompiled binary (linked with ncurses 1.9.4) and your terminfo database is not in /usr/local/lib/terminfo, use the TERMINFO environment variable to specify the correct path.

To install ext2ed, you must have the kernel sources, readline, and ncurses packages installed on your system.

1. Compile the program using make.
2. Install the program using make install.

Note: If you are using an older version of ncurses or if gcc cannot locate specific header files or libraries, you may need to manually edit the Makefile before compiling.

The following configuration options are available in /var/lib/ext2ed/ext2ed.conf:

• AllowMountedRead <on|off>: Allows the tool to open a filesystem that is currently mounted in read-only mode. Note that data displayed may be unreliable.
• ForceExt2 <on|off>: Forces ext2ed to treat the device as an ext2 filesystem if autodetect fails.

When configuring or troubleshooting the uuidd daemon, the following file paths are used by the init script:

• Daemon Executable: /usr/sbin/uuidd
• PID File: /var/run/uuidd/uuidd.pid

The standard command-line syntax for resize2fs is:

resize2fs [-d debug_flags] [-f] [-F] [-M] [-P] [-p] [-s| -b] [-S RAID-stride] [-z undo_file] device [new_size]