E2TOOLS(7)

💖 E2TOOLS 💖

okay bestie, so you know how e2tools is a whole set of utilities to manipulate files in an ext2/ext3 filesystem? yeah. that's the vibe. this is the E2TOOLS(7) page from the Miscellaneous Information Manual and it's literally your group chat for talking to ext2 filesystems. let's get into it 🦋

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

E2tools is a simple set of GPL'ed utilities to read, write, and manipulate files in an ext2/ext3 filesystem. no cap, that's the whole thing.

These utilities access a filesystem directly using the ext2fs library. the author wrote these tools in order to copy files into a linux filesystem on a machine that does not have ext2 support 😭. and of course — because she's generous like that — they can <em>also</em> be used on a linux machine to read/write to disk images or floppies without having to mount them or have root access. the way that just... works. no sudo, no mount, no stress 💅

🌸 Supported functionality 🌸

here's the roster, the main characters, the whole squad:

• e2cp — copy files
• e2mv — move files
• e2rm — remove files
• e2mkdir — create directory
• e2ln — create hard links
• e2ls — list files/directories
• e2tail — output the last part of a file

seven icons. all of them serving. periodt ✨

🎀 how to point at a file on the filesystem 🎀

In general, to specify a directory or file on an ext2 filesystem for the e2tools utilities, use the following form:

filesystem:directory_path

yes bestie, it's a colon. that's the whole separator. iconic honestly.

The filesystem can be an unmounted partition or a regular file that's been formatted to contain an ext2 filesystem. both are valid, both are welcome here 💖

🦋 the multi-file rule (iykyk) 🦋

In general, if a command takes multiple file names on the command line, if the first one contains an ext2 file specification, the rest of the files are assumed to be on the same filesystem until another one is explicitly stated. so like, she remembers where she is until you tell her otherwise. main character memory 🧠✨

/tmp/boot.img:/tmp/file1

/tmp/file2

/tmp/file3

/tmp/boot2.img:/tmp/file4

so Files 1-3 are on /tmp/boot.img and the last file is on /tmp/boot2.img. see how that worked? first one set the address, the next two just... kept living there, and then file4 moved out and got a whole new filesystem. growth. 🌱

⚠️ heads up: the moment a file arg <em>does</em> have a filesystem:path spec, she switches filesystems right there. don't get caught slipping.

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

go read these, they're all bangers, no skips:

• e2cp(1)
• e2ln(1)
• e2ls(1)
• e2mkdir(1)
• e2mv(1)
• e2rm(1)
• e2tail(1)

👑 AUTHOR 👑

The e2tools were written by Keith Sheffield <sheff@pobox.com>. absolute legend, we stan 🫶

This manual page was written by Lucas Wall <lwall@debian.org>, for the Debian project (but may be used by others). generous queen, sharing the docs with everyone 💜

and that's a wrap on E2TOOLS(7) bestie! this lil masterpiece dropped in March 2, 2005 as part of the Miscellaneous Information Manual. yeah, she's vintage, she's a classic, and she's still out here reading and writing ext2/ext3 filesystems with zero root access. we love a timeless icon 🌈⭐💖