From: utzoo!decvax!duke!harpo!floyd!trb
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Title: quicker system startup
Article-I.D.: floyd.951
Posted: Mon Dec 13 14:45:41 1982
Received: Tue Dec 14 05:56:57 1982

In the middle of November someone suggested that fsck needn't be run at
boot time if UNIX was halted gracefully.  This was around the time that
Bob Van Valzah submitted some halt.c fixes for 4.1bsd, but I seem to
recall reference to implementing this on 2.81bsd.

I hacked my 4.1bsd halt.c to create /etc/downclean if all user
processes died properly, and I hacked /etc/rc to test for and remove
/etc/downclean before (conditionally) checking the filesystems.  When I
bring the system down cleanly, it only takes a few seconds to autoreboot
(you should SEE the smile on my face) and when UNIX dies a horrible
death it does the proper fsck.

This scheme has worked well for me so far.  Does anyone out there know
if I'm neglecting some horrible possible condition?  If not, then I
think that everyone should install this code in their halt.c and
/etc/rc.  Fsck's take SO long.

I'll post the simple diffs if no one comes up with a reason that my
suggestion is dangerous.

	Andy Tannenbaum   Bell Labs  Whippany, NJ   (201) 386-6491