On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 11:29:02PM -0500, Yaron wrote:
> Ok, this is... I feel like I really should know this by now, but...
> 
> When I do a mkfs -c -v on a new filesystem, I get this while it's running:
> 
>   Running command: badblocks -b 4096 -X -s /dev/sdg1 732566384
>   Checking for bad blocks (read-only test):  51.39% done, 3:23:10 elapsed.
>   (0/0/0 errors)
> 
> Note the 0/0/0 errors part. Also note that it takes about 3.5 hours
> to do 50%. Therefore if I have, say, several of these drives, I run
> a batch and don't sit here watching.
> 
> Which means that when the mkfs process is done... it doesn't tell me
> anything about how many errors there were. At the end, I get this:
> 
>   Running command: badblocks -b 4096 -X -s /dev/sdg1 732566384
>   Checking for bad blocks (read-only test): done
> 
> Now, does this mean there were NO bad blocks and no errors? Or does
> it hide them somewhere? Is there a command that'll tell it to just
> display bad blocks (if any) or tell me if there are NO bad blocks?

Short of reading the source of the particular mkfs binary that you're
running there's no way to be sure.
I would just run badblocks by itself first, followed by a plain mkfs.

Cheers,
florin

-- 
Sent from my other microwave oven.
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