.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.B e2image
-program will save critical ext2, ext3, or ext4 filesystem metadata located on
-.I device
-to a file specified by
+program will save critical ext2, ext3, or ext4 filesystem metadata located on
+.I device
+to a file specified by
.IR image-file .
-The image file may be examined by
+The image file may be examined by
.B dumpe2fs
and
.BR debugfs ,
e2fsck will be enhanced to be able to use the image file to help
recover a badly damaged filesystem.
.PP
-If
+If
.I image-file
-is \-, then the output of
+is \-, then the output of
.B e2image
will be sent to standard output, so that the output can be piped to
-another program, such as
-.BR gzip (1).
+another program, such as
+.BR gzip (1).
(Note that this is currently only supported when
-creating a raw image file using the
+creating a raw image file using the
.B \-r
option, since the process of creating a normal image file, or QCOW2
image currently
.PP
It is a very good idea to create image files for all of
filesystems on a system and save the partition
-layout (which can be generated using the
+layout (which can be generated using the
.B fdisk \-l
command) at regular intervals --- at boot time, and/or every week or so.
The image file should be stored on some filesystem other than
the filesystem whose data it contains, to ensure that this data is
accessible in the case where the filesystem has been badly damaged.
.PP
-To save disk space,
+To save disk space,
.B e2image
creates the image file as a sparse file, or in QCOW2 format.
Hence, if the sparse image file
needs to be copied to another location, it should
-either be compressed first or copied using the
+either be compressed first or copied using the
.B \-\-sparse=always
-option to the GNU version of
+option to the GNU version of
.BR cp .
This does not apply to the QCOW2 image, which is not sparse.
.PP
.PP
.SH RESTORING FILESYSTEM METADATA USING AN IMAGE FILE
.PP
-The
-.B \-I
+The
+.B \-I
option will cause e2image to install the metadata stored in the image
-file back to the device. It can be used to restore the filesystem metadata
+file back to the device. It can be used to restore the filesystem metadata
back to the device in emergency situations.
.PP
.B WARNING!!!!
The
-.B \-I
+.B \-I
option should only be used as a desperation measure when other
alternatives have failed. If the filesystem has changed since the image
file was created, data
strategies afterwards.
.PP
.SH RAW IMAGE FILES
-The
+The
.B \-r
-option will create a raw image file instead of a normal image file.
+option will create a raw image file instead of a normal image file.
A raw image file differs
from a normal image file in two ways. First, the filesystem metadata is
placed in the proper position so that e2fsck, dumpe2fs, debugfs,
-etc. can be run directly on the raw image file. In order to minimize
+etc.\& can be run directly on the raw image file. In order to minimize
the amount of disk space consumed by a raw image file, the file is
created as a sparse file. (Beware of copying or
compressing/decompressing this file with utilities that don't understand
recommended command is as follows (replace hda1 with the appropriate device):
.PP
.br
-\ \fBe2image \-r /dev/hda1 \- | bzip2 > hda1.e2i.bz2\fR
+ \fBe2image \-r /dev/hda1 \- | bzip2 > hda1.e2i.bz2\fR
.PP
-This will only send the metadata information, without any data blocks.
+This will only send the metadata information, without any data blocks.
However, the filenames in the directory blocks can still reveal
information about the contents of the filesystem that the bug reporter
may wish to keep confidential. To address this concern, the
.B \-s
option can be specified. This will cause
-.B e2image
+.B e2image
to scramble directory entries and zero out any unused portions
of the directory blocks before writing the image file. However,
-the
+the
.B \-s
option will prevent analysis of problems related to hash-tree indexed
directories.
.BR qemu-img .
.PP
.SH AUTHOR
-.B e2image
+.B e2image
was written by Theodore Ts'o (tytso@mit.edu).
.SH AVAILABILITY
.B e2image
-is part of the e2fsprogs package and is available from
+is part of the e2fsprogs package and is available from
http://e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR dumpe2fs (8),