2 .TH MKFS 8 "June 2011" "util-linux" "System Administration"
4 mkfs \- build a Linux filesystem
9 .IR type "] [" fs-options ] " device " [ size ]
11 .B This mkfs frontend is deprecated in favour of filesystem specific mkfs.<type> utils.
14 is used to build a Linux filesystem on a device, usually
15 a hard disk partition. The
17 argument is either the device name (e.g.
20 or a regular file that shall contain the filesystem. The
22 argument is the number of blocks to be used for the filesystem.
24 The exit code returned by
26 is 0 on success and 1 on failure.
30 is simply a front-end for the various filesystem builders
31 (\fBmkfs.\fIfstype\fR)
32 available under Linux.
33 The filesystem-specific builder is searched for in a number
34 of directories, like perhaps
40 (the precise list is defined at compile time but at least
45 and finally in the directories
46 listed in the PATH environment variable.
47 Please see the filesystem-specific builder manual pages for
51 .BR \-t , " \-\-type " \fItype\fR
52 Specify the \fItype\fR of filesystem to be built.
53 If not specified, the default filesystem type
54 (currently ext2) is used.
57 Filesystem-specific options to be passed to the real filesystem builder.
59 .BR \-V , " \-\-verbose"
60 Produce verbose output, including all filesystem-specific commands
62 Specifying this option more than once inhibits execution of any
63 filesystem-specific commands.
64 This is really only useful for testing.
66 .BR \-V , " \-\-version"
67 Display version information and exit. (Option \fB\-V\fR will display
68 version information only when it is the only parameter, otherwise it
69 will work as \fB\-\-verbose\fR.)
72 Display help text and exit.
74 All generic options must precede and not be combined with
75 filesystem-specific options.
76 Some filesystem-specific programs do not automatically
77 detect the device size and require the
79 parameter to be specified.
81 David Engel (david@ods.com)
83 Fred N.\& van Kempen (waltje@uwalt.nl.mugnet.org)
85 Ron Sommeling (sommel@sci.kun.nl)
87 The manual page was shamelessly adapted from Remy Card's version
88 for the ext2 filesystem.
106 The mkfs command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
107 ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.