ncheck_ffs(8)

ncheck_ffs8

Generate names from inode-numbers

Usage

ncheck_ffs [-ams] [-f format] [-i number ...] filesystem

Overview

ncheck_ffs generates a list of filenames and inode numbers for the given file system. Names of directories are followed by a ‘.’. ncheck_ffs may be invoked more simply as ncheck, with no change in behaviour.

The options are as follows:

-a

Print the file names ‘.’ and ‘..’, which are ordinarily skipped.

-f format

Use a custom output format when printing inode information. Characters from format are printed for each inode with the following escape sequences:

\a

Print a ⟨bell⟩ character.

\b

Print a ⟨backspace⟩ character.

\e

Print an ⟨escape⟩ character.

\f

Print a ⟨form-feed⟩ character.

\I

Print the inode number.

\n

Print a ⟨new-line⟩ character.

\P

Print the pathname to the file using the current inode number.

\r

Print a ⟨carriage return⟩ character.

\t

Print a ⟨tab⟩ character.

\v

Print a ⟨vertical tab⟩ character.

\'

Print a ⟨single quote⟩ character.

\\

Print a backslash character.

\0

Print a NUL character.

All other characters, when prefixed by a backslash, simply print the character following the backslash. The device name is not printed on the first line of output when the -f option is specified.

-i number ...

Report only those files whose inode numbers are as listed.

-m

Give more verbose information on inodes.

-s

Report only special files and files with set-user-ID or set-group-ID set. This is meant to find hidden violations of security policies.

The report is not sorted.

Releases

61 releases since OpenBSD 2.1; the text changed 15 times.

  1. 2.1–2.3
  2. 2.4
  3. 2.5
  4. 2.6
  5. 2.7–2.8
  6. 2.9
  7. 3.0
  8. 3.1–3.2
  9. 3.3
  10. 3.4
  11. 3.5–4.1
  12. 4.2–5.3
  13. 5.4–5.8
  14. 5.9–6.5
  15. 6.6
  16. 6.7–8.0

-f since OpenBSD 3.3.

-i until OpenBSD 3.0.

History

An ncheck command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX. The ncheck_ffs command was designed to be similar in functionality to the corresponding command in SunOS 4.1.3.

Authors

Thorsten Lockert ⟨[email protected]⟩

From man 8.0-current-20261101 in OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01). Parsed by carta from the page's mdoc source.