Hi,

>I'm not using "fsck -p -y", I have "fsck -p" in /etc/rc and I'm getting a
>usage error.  I never had this problem before I began using the latest
>snapshot files.

I checked the manpage of fsck in the latest snapshot. The filesystem is
now a mandatory parameter. This means that "fsck -p" can not work, the
filesystem (either "/", sinc this is mount read-only, or /dev/rsd## if
another, not mounted, filesystem is to be checked, ## to be replaced by
the actual partition number) must be specified. The invocation to check
all drives mounted through /etc/fstab, "fsck -p -a", does not work.
This change occured between the 1.2 release and the 970214 snapshot and
apparently was intentional, otherwise the manpage would not have been
updated.
Not that I'm too happy with it, I think "fsck -p -a" should work.

The "-y" option is somewhat silly, and once again served only to increase
the confusion.  Whatever fsck asks, "yes" is the only sensible answer to
get the filesystem up and running again. "No" will not fix what should
have been fixed.
The only two cases I have seen where not answering "yes" made sense were
when fsck itself was damaged (but still runnable) and when one CPU in a
multiprocessor system was malfunctioning.

Best wishes,

          Nico

--
  Dr. N.J.R. van Eikema Hommes     Computer-Chemie-Centrum
  hommes@ccc.uni-erlangen.de       Universitaet Erlangen-Nuernberg
  Phone:    +49-(0)9131-856532     Naegelsbachstr. 25
  FAX:      +49-(0)9131-856566     D-91052 Erlangen, Germany