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 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 default file system type (currently ext2) 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 systemspecific
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.ext2(8),
mkfs.minix(8), mkfs.msdos(8), mkfs.xfs(8), mkfs.xiafs(8)
Version 1.9 Jun 1995 MKFS(8)
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