Table of Contentsmkfs - build a Linux file system mkfs [ -V ] [ -t fstype ] [ fs-options ] filesys [ blocks ] mkfs is used to build a Linux file system on a device, usually a hard disk partition. filesys is either the device name (e.g. /dev/hda1, /dev/sdb2) or the mount point (e.g. /, /usr, /home) for the file system. blocks is the number of blocks to be used for the file system. The exit code returned by mkfs is 0 on success and 1 on failure.
In actuality, mkfs is simply a front-end for the various file system builders (mkfs.fstype) available under Linux. The file system-specific builder is searched for in /etc/fs first, then in /etc and finally in the directories listed in the PATH enviroment variable. Please see the file system-specific builder manual pages for further details.
- -V
- Produce verbose output, including all file system-specific commands that are executed. Specifying this option more than once inhibits execution of any file system-specific commands. This is really only useful for testing.
- -t fstype
- Specifies the type of file system to be built. If not specified, the type is deduced by searching for filesys in /etc/fstab and using the corresponding entry. If the type can not be deduced, the default file system type (currently minix) is used.
- fs-options
- File system-specific options to be passed to the real file system builder. Although not guaranteed, the following options are supported by most file system builders.
- -c
- Check the device for bad blocks before building the file system.
- -l filename
- Read the bad blocks list from filename
- -v
- Produce verbose output.
All generic options must precede and not be combined with file system-specific options. Some file system-specific programs do not support the -v (verbose) option, nor return meaningful exit codes. Also, some file system-specific programs do not automatically detect the device size and require the blocks parameter to be specified. David Engel (david@ods.com)
Fred N. van Kempen (waltje@uwalt.nl.mugnet.org)
Ron Sommeling (sommel@sci.kun.nl)
The manual page was shamelessly adapted from Remy Card's version for the ext2 file system. fsck(8), mkfs.minix(8), mkfs.ext(8), mkfs.ext2(8), mkfs.xiafs(8).
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