SALVAGE.FS(5)

📦
version 1.8.16.1 · 10 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

✨ SALVAGE.FS ✨

ok bestie, section 5 of the manual, the AFS File Reference era 💖 this one's short but she's important, so pay attention, no skimming 🙈

🌸 NAME 🌸

SALVAGE.fs — the little file that goes "hey, salvage the AFS server partitions bestie" 🚨

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

okay so picture this: there's a file called SALVAGE.fs, and if it's hanging out in a file server machine's /var/lib/openafs/local directory, that's basically a big flashing sign 🪧 telling the Basic OverSeer (BOS) Server — that's the bosserver process, hi queen 👑 — that it must invoke the Salvager (the salvager process) while recovering from a failure of the File Server (the fileserver process). it's giving emergency alert system, fr fr 💀

here's the lore: the BOS Server creates this file, and it's zero-length (empty, nothing in it, she's just a vibe check ✅) every single time it starts or restarts the "fs" process.

when the File Server exits normally — like, say, in response to the bos shutdown or bos stop command — the BOS Server removes the file. clean exit, clean deletion, slay 💅

but 👀 if the File Server exits unexpectedly? the file stays in the /var/lib/openafs/local directory. and that leftover file is a signal — a whole message — that the BOS Server must invoke the Salvager process to repair any file system inconsistencies that possibly got introduced during the failure, before restarting the File Server and Volume Server processes. it's doing so much emotional labor honestly 😭

⚠️ do NOT create or remove this file. not yours to touch, bestie, she manages herself 🙅‍♀️

if you actually want to invoke the Salvager process directly, you have two iconic options:

  • use the bos salvage command 🛠️
  • or log onto the file server machine as the local superuser "root" and issue the salvager command 👑

that's it, that's the whole thing, no cap 🌈

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

the whole friend group honestly, obsessed 🫶

IBM Corporation 2000. <http://www.ibm.com/> All Rights Reserved. ⭐

this documentation is covered by the IBM Public License Version 1.0. she was converted from HTML to POD by software written by Chas Williams and Russ Allbery, based on work by Alf Wachsmann and Elizabeth Cassell — shoutout to the devs, absolute legends 🧚

k that's the page!! brought to you by OpenAFS, dated 2026-07-27, living her best life at SALVAGE.fs(5) 💖✨ bye bestie, go use bos salvage instead of poking the file, mwah 🎀

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