Re: 2.4.35 SMP: ext3_readdir: bad entry in directory #323888: rec_len is smaller than minimal

From: Jan Kara
Date: Tue Sep 18 2007 - 12:23:11 EST


> On Tue, Sep 18, 2007 at 05:12:06PM +0200, you [Jan Kara] wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > > I got a bunch of these into dmesg:
> > >
> > > EXT3-fs error (device sd(8,2)): ext3_readdir: bad entry in directory #323880: rec_len is smaller than minimal - offset=0, inode=0, rec_len=0, name_len=0
> > > EXT3-fs error (device sd(8,2)): ext3_readdir: bad entry in directory #323888: rec_len is smaller than minimal - offset=0, inode=0, rec_len=0, name_len=0
> > > EXT3-fs error (device sd(8,2)): ext3_readdir: bad entry in directory #323882: rec_len is smaller than minimal - offset=0, inode=0, rec_len=0, name_len=0
> > >
> > > The kernel is 2.4.35 SMP, dual-processor. The scsi driver is Fusion MPT SCSI
> > > Host driver 2.05.16.
> > >
> > > The device is /dev/sda2, root fs.
> > >
> > > One line per each directory had dropped into dmesg each night (I think
> > > during updatedb) before I noticed.
> > Interesting. Can you look (using debugfs) on the content of the
> > /usr/share/doc/ directory? It seems like parts of it have been zeroed
> > out...
>
> Unfortunately, no. I removed those directories because those were the only
> ones causing problems and wasn't able to reboot for a proper fsck
> immediately. The rm -rf command gave no errors (to stdout or dmesg), and a
> read-only fsck right after that gave no errors on the directory structure.
>
> Sorry for the sparse details, but when you have these kind of problems on
> live servers, you tend to forget the debuggability...
Yes, I can understand that :). It's just that now it's hard to find
out what has really happened. Anyway, thanks for your report.

Honza
--
Jan Kara <jack@xxxxxxx>
SuSE CR Labs
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