MKFS
NAME
mkfs - build a Linux file system
SYNOPSIS
mkfs
[
-V
]
[
-t
fstype
]
[
fs-options
]
filesys
[
blocks
]
DESCRIPTION
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 a number
of directories like /sbin, /sbin/fs, /sbin/fs.d, /etc/fs, /etc
(the precise list is defined at compile time but at least
contains /sbin and /sbin/fs), and finally in the directories
listed in the PATH enviroment variable.
Please see the file system-specific builder manual pages for
further details.
OPTIONS
- -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.
BUGS
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.
AUTHORS
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.
SEE ALSO
fsck(8),
mkfs.minix(8),
mkfs.ext(8),
mkfs.ext2(8),
mkfs.xiafs(8).