mkfs — 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 a number
of directories like perhaps /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 environment variable. Please see the file
system-specific builder manual pages for further details.
−VProduce 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.
−tfstypeSpecifies the type of file system to be built. If not specified, the default file system type (currently ext2) is used.
fs-optionsFile 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.
−cCheck the device for bad blocks before building the file system.
−lfilenameRead the bad blocks list from filename
−vProduce 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.
fs(5), badblocks(8), fsck(8), mkdosfs(8), mke2fs(8), mkfs.bfs(8), mkfs.ext2(8), mkfs.ext3(8), mkfs.minix(8), mkfs.msdos(8), mkfs.vfat(8), mkfs.xfs(8), mkfs.xiafs(8)
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