e2fsck progress bar?

Question

How can I see the progress of e2fsck in the terminal? Are there any pv like ways?

For example how can I see how far along this command is in progress:

e2fsck -f -y -v /dev/sdb1

Answer 1

From man e2fsck:

-C fd
This option causes e2fsck to write completion information to the specified file descriptor so that the progress of the filesystem check can be monitored. This option is typically used by programs which are running e2fsck. If the file descriptor number is negative, then absolute value of the file descriptor will be used, and the progress information will be suppressed initially. It can later be enabled by sending the e2fsck process a SIGUSR1 signal. If the file descriptor specified is 0, e2fsck will print a completion bar as it goes about its business. This requires that e2fsck is running on a video console or terminal.

Note particularly the line I bolded and try e2fsck -C 0. Apparently you can even enable the progress bar output after you run the program by sending the process the right signal!

pkill -SIGUSR1 e2fsck