RESIZE2FS(8) System Manager's Manual RESIZE2FS(8)
NAME
resize2fs - ext2/ext3/ext4 file system resizer
SYNOPSIS
resize2fs [ -fFpPM ] [ -d debug-flags ] [ -S RAID-stride ] device [ size ]
DESCRIPTION
The resize2fs program will resize ext2, ext3, or ext4 file systems. It can be used to enlarge or shrink an
unmounted file system located on device. If the filesystem is mounted, it can be used to expand the size of
the mounted filesystem, assuming the kernel supports on-line resizing. (As of this writing, the Linux 2.6
kernel supports on-line resize for filesystems mounted using ext3 and ext4.).
The size parameter specifies the requested new size of the filesystem. If no units are specified, the units
of the size parameter shall be the filesystem blocksize of the filesystem. Optionally, the size parameter may
be suffixed by one of the following the units designators: 's', 'K', 'M', or 'G', for 512 byte sectors, kilo‐
bytes, megabytes, or gigabytes, respectively. The size of the filesystem may never be larger than the size of
the partition. If size parameter is not specified, it will default to the size of the partition.
Note: when kilobytes is used above, I mean real, power-of-2 kilobytes, (i.e., 1024 bytes), which some politi‐
cally correct folks insist should be the stupid-sounding ``kibibytes''. The same holds true for megabytes,
also sometimes known as ``mebibytes'', or gigabytes, as the amazingly silly ``gibibytes''. Makes you want to
gibber, doesn't it?
The resize2fs program does not manipulate the size of partitions. If you wish to enlarge a filesystem, you
must make sure you can expand the size of the underlying partition first. This can be done using fdisk(8) by
deleting the partition and recreating it with a larger size or using lvextend(8), if you're using the logical
volume manager lvm(8). When recreating the partition, make sure you create it with the same starting disk
cylinder as before! Otherwise, the resize operation will certainly not work, and you may lose your entire
filesystem. After running fdisk(8), run resize2fs to resize the ext2 filesystem to use all of the space in
the newly enlarged partition.
If you wish to shrink an ext2 partition, first use resize2fs to shrink the size of filesystem. Then you may
use fdisk(8) to shrink the size of the partition. When shrinking the size of the partition, make sure you do
not make it smaller than the new size of the ext2 filesystem!
OPTIONS
-d debug-flags
Turns on various resize2fs debugging features, if they have been compiled into the binary. debug-flags
should be computed by adding the numbers of the desired features from the following list:
2 - Debug block relocations
4 - Debug inode relocations
8 - Debug moving the inode table
16 - Print timing information
32 - Debug minimum filesystem size (-M) calculation
-f Forces resize2fs to proceed with the filesystem resize operation, overriding some safety checks which
resize2fs normally enforces.
-F Flush the filesystem device's buffer caches before beginning. Only really useful for doing resize2fs
time trials.
-M Shrink the filesystem to the minimum size.
-p Prints out a percentage completion bars for each resize2fs operation during an offline resize, so that
the user can keep track of what the program is doing.
resize2fs was written by Theodore Ts'o <[email protected]>.
COPYRIGHT
Resize2fs is Copyright 1998 by Theodore Ts'o and PowerQuest, Inc. All rights reserved. As of April, 2000
Resize2fs may be redistributed under the terms of the GPL.
SEE ALSO
fdisk(8), e2fsck(8), mke2fs(8), lvm(8), lvextend(8)
E2fsprogs version 1.42.9 December 2013 RESIZE2FS(8)
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