The ext3 file system is an enhancement to ext2 that adds journaling and fast crash recovery. Ext3 file systems can be read as ext2 in an emergency. An ext2 file system can be converted to ext3.

Extended attributes are one nice feature of ext2/ext3. In addition to the standard Unix file system permissions, extended attributes add capabilities including:

• append only (a) - file can only be opened in append mode
• immutable (i) - file cannot be changed, even by root, though root can unset the immutable attribute

 

To set extended attributes, use:

chattr +a filenmame (must be root)
chattr +i filenmame (must be root)

To list extended attributes, use:

lsattr filename

To format a partition as ext3:

mke2fs -j /dev/hdx

To convert an ext2 file system to ext3 (non-destructive):

tune2fs -j /dev/hdx

To manually repair an ext2/ext3 file system:

e2fsck /dev/hdx
You will be prompted for each suggested repair. File system should not be mounted.

To automatically repair an ext2/ext3 file system

e2fsck -p /dev/hdx
Automatically repair the file system without prompting. File system should not be mounted. Use with caution!