[TriLUG] fsck.ext4 vs e2fsck

[Brian via TriLUG]

Here's one I have run out of patience for googling.

I've been working with writing some images to microSD cards. 
Invariably, after data is written, an unqualified "sudo fsck -fy 
/dev/sda1" (not mounted!) spews lots of errors that it claims to fix, 
and then spews and claims to fix the same exact errors when I run it again.

Compare that to running "sudo e2fsck -fy /dev/sda1" which finds no 
errors at all.

Why do they disagree?

I do notice that the two report very different versions:

$ fsck --version
fsck from util-linux 2.33.1
$ sudo e2fsck -fy /dev/sda1   # (e2fsck does not recognize --version)
e2fsck 1.44.5 (15-Dec-2018)


Yeah, very old I know, it's an SBC that doesn't have support with the 
latest and greatest (I tried!).

Anyway, just wondering if anyone has some knowledge they can pass along 
to me.

Thanks!
-Brian