SCAVENGER




A  subsystem for  checking and  correcting disk  packs is  available as
SCAVENGER.   Invoke it  with  no parameters  and  it will  give  you an
opportunity to (1) change disks  and (2) prevent it from  altering your
disk seriously (see below).

The scavenger does the following:
    1. Corrects header blocks, prompting for confirmation.
    2.  Corrects  check sum  errors,  by re-writing  whatever  came in,
        prompting for confirmation.
    3. Discovers  all well-formed  files and all  free pages.  Any disk
        page (except page 0) that  is neither free nor part of  a well-
        formed file is considered bad.
    4. Makes the serial numbers of all well-formed files are distinct.
    5. Corrects the system's notion of what pages are free.
    6. Corrects the system's latest serial number.
    7.  Corrects the  directory  to contain  precisely  the well-formed
        files.  If a directory entry  points into a chain of  bad pages
        it attempts  to salvage the  file.  If need  be a  directory is
        created from scratch.
    8. Links  all bad, unsalvaged  pages together as  part of  the file
        Garbage.$.
    9. Describes all changes to the disk in the file ScavengerLog, even
        those which were not actually performed.
    10.  Corrects leader  page  information.  Changes  to  leader pages
        should not  cause alarm.   The information there  is used  as a
        hint by various systems.

The data in bad pages is not changed so you can attempt  to reconstruct
a   lost  file   by  suitable   operations  on   Garbage.$,  consulting
ScavengerLog to interpret its contents.

A hopelessly smashed disk may be put back in shape by the following:
    1. Invoke scavenger on a good  disk and answer yes to "Do  you want
        to change disks?"
    2. Replace the good disk with the bad one.
    3. Answer  yes to "Is  the new disk  ready?" when the  yellow ready
        light comes on.
    4. Answer yes to "May I alter your disk to corrct errors?"
    5. If FTP lives on your disk, the scavenger will offer to invoke it
        rather than retuning to the executive. Once you are in  FTP you
        can receive critcal files (like Executive.Run or SysFont.Al) or
        evacuate  your  disk  by  sending  files  elsewhere.    If  the
        scavenger does not offer FTP, it is not there and you will have
        to do some  more disk suffling  to retreive files;  i.e. invoke
        FTP from a good disk and change disks after you are in.

You  should  take precautions  to  avoid losing  vital  files  (such as
QUICKing your disk to another disk pack prior to running SCAVENGER).





                             ------------
                   Copyright Xerox Corporation 1979


SCAVENGER                    May 24, 1976                             2




PARC information

The  following, more  or  less independent,  procedure can  be  used to
recover vital files that might have been lost during scavenging.
    1. Invoke FTP on a good disk.
    2. At an early point in the dialogue replace the good disk with the
        bad one and wait for the yellow ready light to come on.
    3. Retrieve the needed  files from MAXC (Executive.Run and  FTP are
        the minimum required, I think.)
    4. Quit out of FTP.
    5. Run the scavenger. It will correct the DiskDescriptor file which
        became inaccurate during this process.