Bug#686895: Deprecate forcefsck

[Mark Hindley]

I read the conclusion here as deprecate forcefsck in favour of tune2fs(8) -E
force_fsck.

Suggested patch attached.

Mark

commit 3251825f8070d89fe0872107bc51562ddc7f6292
Author: Mark Hindley <mark at hindley.org.uk>
Date:   Mon Sep 15 14:02:30 2025 +0100

    Deprecate forcefsck.
    
    Closes: #686895

diff --git a/debian/initscripts.NEWS b/debian/initscripts.NEWS
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..978434df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/initscripts.NEWS
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+initscripts (3.15-3) experimental; urgency=medium
+
+  * Use of /forcefsck and the forcefsck kernel cmdline option is now
+    DEPRECATED. It only worked on ext[2,3,4] filesystems. Admins should use the
+    '-E force_fsck' flag of tune2fs(8) instead.
+
+ -- Mark Hindley <leepen at debian.org>  Wed, 24 Sep 2025 20:29:29 +0100
diff --git a/debian/src/initscripts/etc/init.d/checkfs.sh b/debian/src/initscripts/etc/init.d/checkfs.sh
index 5808b924..6344bf6b 100755
--- a/debian/src/initscripts/etc/init.d/checkfs.sh
+++ b/debian/src/initscripts/etc/init.d/checkfs.sh
@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@ do_start() {
 	#
 	if [ "$fscheck" = yes ] && [ ! "$BAT" ] && [ "$FSCKTYPES" != "none" ]; then
 		if [ -f /forcefsck ] || grep -q -s -w -i "forcefsck" /proc/cmdline; then
+			log_warning_msg "forcefsck is DEPRECATED and will be removed. Ext[2,3,4] can be forcibly checked by using the tune2fs(8) -E force_fsck option"
 			force="-f"
 		else
 			force=""