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1ext2ed - The extended-2 filesystem editor, version e2fsprogs
2
3
4This version of ext2ed has been modified and updated by Theodore Ts'o
5for inclusion with the e2fsprogs package.  It now builds with modern
6ncurses and I've fixed various small bugs, particular in the redrawing
7and resizing functions.
8
9It is currently not built by default -- the top-level e2fsprogs
10Makefile doesn't recurse into this directory.  This is because ext2ed
11has a number of VERY SERIOUS shortcomings:
12
131)  It doesn't work on filesystems bigger than 2GB
14
152)  It assumes that all's the world an Intel, and assumes that
16	everything is in Intel (little-endian) byte order.
17
18Fixing either of these problems would be non-trivial, and so I at this
19point DO NOT RECOMMEND that distributions try to include this program,
20even as modified and updated in e2fsprogs.  This especially goes for
21Debian, where the Debian maintainer for e2fsprogs has a history of
22making authorized changes to e2fsprogs to include programs that aren't
23supported, and then starts bugging me with bug reports.  YES I KNOW.
24THIS PROGRAM HAS HORRIBLE SHORTCOMINGS.  IT IS INCLUDED HERE ONLY
25BECAUSE IT'S A CONVENIENT WAY FOR (FOR E2FSPROGS DEVELOPERS ON INTEL
26MACHINES) TO GENERATE TEST CASES BY SELECTIVELY CORRUPTING
27FILESYSTEMS.  I WILL NOT SUPPORT THIS PROGRAM FOR USE BY GENERAL USERS
28SO PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE IT IN A DISTRIBUTION.
29
30I have currently disabled the use of GNU Readline in this program,
31because readline and ncurses really don't play well together at all.
32Readline assumes that it can write arbitrary text to the screen
33(especially when it tries to print out a completion list), which just
34doesn't work with ncurses.  Fixing this so they would work together
35would require wholesale changes to readline.
36
37				Theodore Ts'o
38				tytso@MIT.EDU
39				May 12, 2001
40
41----------------------------------------------------------------------------
42
43ext2ed - The extended-2 filesystem editor, version 0.2
44------------------------------------------------------
45
46This is version 0.2 of ext2ed - The extended-2 filesystem editor.
47
48Modifications on Apr 5 2001
49This is minor bug fixes to ext2ed, as of April 2001.
50It supports modern ext2 version that has file type in directory structure
51and fixes the misunderstanding between ncurses and
52readline.
53
54I first applied patches from Red Hat except the one for readline that
55rewrote a readline behavior.
56
57Globals diffs between version 0.1 and 0.2 is stored in file :
58	diff-ext2ed.1.2
59
60Christian Bac <Christian.Bac@nt-evry.fr>
61
62----------------------------------------------------------------------------
63
64Documentation
65-------------
66
67ext2ed's documentation consists of three documents:
68
691.	The user's guide.
702.	Technical overview of the ext2 filesystem.
713.	The EXT2ED design and implementation document.
72
73Those documents are available in the doc directory, in linuxdoc-sgml and
74postscript formats.
75
76The documentation is also available online at:
77
78http://tochnapc2.technion.ac.il
79
80under the ext2ed section.
81
82Installation
83------------
84
85ext2ed requires the kernel sources and the readline and ncurses packages.
86Please edit the makefile if you are using an "old" version of ncurses (See the
87details below) or if gcc can't find the various header files and libraries.
88
89To install, simply issue a 'make' command to compile and a 'make install'
90command to install. I have also included an already compiled linux a.out
91binary.
92
93ext2ed and ncurses
94------------------
95
96ext2ed uses the ncurses library for terminal output. It is very important
97that ncurses will be properly installed on your system:
98
991.	Old versions of ncurses (around 1.8.5) need the OLD_NCURSES compile
100	time option in EXT2ED.
101
102	At least from 1.9.2c, this flag should not be used. I would recommend
103	upgrading the ncurses library to the newer versions.
104
1052.	ncurses uses its own terminfo database rather then the termcap file.
106	It is important that the terminfo database will be found by ncurses.
107	If this is not the case, you will see on startup some lines which
108	refer to /etc/termcap. This will mean that there is a problem with
109	the terminfo database.
110
1113.	Newer versions of ncurses (and the 1.3 series of the kernel) describe
112	the linux console in the entry 'linux' and not 'console', as it was
113	before. If you run ext2ed in the linux console, you should either
114	set your TERM environment variable to 'linux' or link
115	l/linux to c/console in the terminfo database.
116
1174.	The precompiled binary was linked with ncurses 1.9.4 and will search
118	for the terminfo database on /usr/local/lib/terminfo. If you are
119	using it, and your 1.9.4 compatible terminfo database is not on the
120	directory above, use the TERMINFO environment variable to specify
121	an alternate location.
122
123Running ext2ed
124--------------
125
126For those of you who don't like reading lengthy articles, here are a few
127basic guidelines:
128
1291.	Don't use ext2ed to change a mounted filesystem !
130
131	Using ext2ed in read-only mode on a mounted filesystem can be allowed
132	by using the configuration file option 'AllowMountedRead on'. However,
133	note that the displayed data will be unreliable.
134
1352.	ext2ed currently can't handle filesystems bigger than 2 GB. I am
136	sorry for the inconvenience. This will hopefully be fixed in future
137	releases.
138
1393. 	Before running ext2ed, edit the configuration file
140	/var/lib/ext2ed/ext2ed.conf to suit your needs. The various
141	configuration options are documented there.
142
1434.	Use the 'setdevice' command to open an ext2 filesystem.
144	e.g. 'setdevice /dev/hda1'.
145
1465.	If the filesystem is an ext2 filesystem and ext2ed fails to
147	autodetect this, use the 'ForceExt2 on' configuration file option.
148
1496.	The filesystem will always be opened in read-only mode. Feel free to
150	experiment, but take care with the 'enablewrite' command.
151
152-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
153
154Feel free to send me feedback with anything regarding to ext2ed.
155
156Enjoy,
157
158Gadi Oxman <tgud@tochnapc2.technion.ac.il>
159Haifa, August 23 1995
160
161