wipefs \- wipe a signature from a device
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B wipefs
-.RB [ \-ahnptV ]
+.RB [ \-ahnpqtV ]
.RB [ \-o
.IR offset ]
-.I device...
+.IR device ...
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B wipefs
-can erase filesystem, raid or partition table signatures (magic strings) from
+can erase filesystem, raid or partition-table signatures (magic strings) from
the specified
.I device
-to make the signature invisible for libblkid.
+to make the signatures invisible for libblkid.
.B wipefs
does not erase the filesystem itself nor any other data from the device.
and the offsets of their basic signatures.
Note that some filesystems or some partition tables store more magic strings on
-the devices. The
+the devices. The
.B wipefs
-lists the first offset where a magic string has been detected. The device is
-not scanned for additional magic strings for the same filesystem. It's possible
-that after \fBwipefs -o <offset>\fR will be the same filesystem or partition
-table visible by another magic string on another offset.
+command lists only the first offset where a magic string has been detected. The device
+is not scanned for additional magic strings for the same filesystem. It is possible
+that after \fBwipefs -o \fIoffset\fR the same filesystem or partition
+table will still be visible by another magic string on another offset.
-When used with option \fB-a\fR then all for libblkid visible magic strings are
+When used with option \fB-a\fR, all magic strings that are visible for libblkid are
erased.
.SH OPTIONS
-.IP "\fB\-a, \-\-all\fP"
-Erase all available signatures. This set of erased signatures could be
-restricted by \fB\-t <list>\fP option.
-.IP "\fB\-f, \-\-force\fP"
+.TP
+.BR \-a , " \-\-all"
+Erase all available signatures. The set of erased signatures can be
+restricted with the \fB\-t\fP \fIlist\fP option.
+.TP
+.BR \-f , " \-\-force"
Force erasure, even if the filesystem is mounted. This is required in
order to erase the partition table on a block device.
-.IP "\fB\-h, \-\-help\fP"
+.TP
+.BR \-h , " \-\-help"
Print help and exit.
-.IP "\fB\-n, \-\-no\-act\fP"
+.TP
+.BR -n , " \-\-no\-act"
Causes everything to be done except for the write() call.
-.IP "\fB\-o, \-\-offset\fP \fIoffset\fP
+.TP
+.BR \-o , " \-\-offset " \fIoffset\fP
Specify the location (in bytes) of the signature which should be erased from the
device. The \fIoffset\fR number may include a "0x" prefix; then the number will be
interpreted as a hex value. It is possible to specify multiple \fB-o\fR options.
The \fIoffset\fR argument may be followed by the multiplicative
-suffixes KiB=1024, MiB=1024*1024, and so on for GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB and YiB
-(the "iB" is optional, e.g. "K" has the same meaning as "KiB") or the suffixes
-KB=1000, MB=1000*1000, and so on for GB, TB, PB, EB, ZB and YB.
-.IP "\fB\-p, \-\-parsable\fP"
+suffixes KiB (=1024), MiB (=1024*1024), and so on for GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB and YiB
+(the "iB" is optional, e.g. "K" has the same meaning as "KiB"), or the suffixes
+KB (=1000), MB (=1000*1000), and so on for GB, TB, PB, EB, ZB and YB.
+.TP
+.BR \-p , " \-\-parsable"
Print out in parsable instead of printable format. Encode all potentially unsafe
characters of a string to the corresponding hex value prefixed by '\\x'.
-.IP "\fB\-q, \-\-quiet\fP"
+.TP
+.BR \-q , " \-\-quiet"
Suppress output messages after successful signature wipe.
-.IP "\fB\-t, \-\-types\fP \fIlist\fP
-Used to limit the set of printed or erased signatures. More than one type may
-be specified in a comma-separated list. The list of types or individual types
+.TP
+.BR \-t , " \-\-types " \fIlist\fP
+Limit the set of printed or erased signatures. More than one type may
+be specified in a comma-separated list. The list or individual types
can be prefixed with 'no' to specify the types on which no action should be
-taken. For more details see mount(8).
-.IP "\fB\-V, \-\-version\fP"
+taken. For more details see mount(8).
+.TP
+.BR -V , " \-\-version"
Output version information and exit.
.SH AUTHOR
-Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com>.
+Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com>
.SH ENVIRONMENT
-.IP LIBBLKID_DEBUG=0xffff
-enables debug output.
+.IP "Setting LIBBLKID_DEBUG=0xffff enables debug output."
.SH AVAILABILITY
The wipefs command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.