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MKFS(8)                                         System Administration                                         MKFS(8)



NAME
       mkfs - build a Linux filesystem

SYNOPSIS
       mkfs [options] [-t type] [fs-options] device [size]

DESCRIPTION
       mkfs  is  used to build a Linux filesystem on a device, usually a hard disk partition.  The device argument is
       either the device name (e.g.  /dev/hda1, /dev/sdb2), or a regular file that shall contain the filesystem.  The
       size argument is the number of blocks to be used for the filesystem.

       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 filesystem builders (mkfs.fstype) available under
       Linux.  The filesystem-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
       filesystem-specific builder manual pages for further details.

OPTIONS
       -t, --type type
              Specify  the  type of filesystem to be built.  If not specified, the default filesystem type (currently
              ext2) is used.

       fs-options
              Filesystem-specific options to be passed to the real filesystem builder.  Although not guaranteed,  the
              following options are supported by most filesystem builders.

       -V, --verbose
              Produce  verbose output, including all filesystem-specific commands that are executed.  Specifying this
              option more than once inhibits execution of any filesystem-specific commands.  This is really only use‐
              ful for testing.

       -V, --version
              Display  version information and exit.  (Option -V will display version information only when it is the
              only parameter, otherwise it will work as --verbose.)

       -h, --help
              Display help and exit.

BUGS
       All generic options must precede and not be combined with filesystem-specific options.   Some  filesystem-spe‐
       cific  programs do not support the -V (verbose) option, nor return meaningful exit codes.  Also, some filesys‐
       tem-specific programs do not automatically detect the device size and require the size parameter to be  speci‐
       fied.

AUTHORS
       David Engel ([email protected])
       Fred N. van Kempen ([email protected])
       Ron Sommeling ([email protected])
       The manual page was shamelessly adapted from Remy Card's version for the ext2 filesystem.

SEE ALSO
       fs(5),  badblocks(8),  fsck(8),  mkdosfs(8), mke2fs(8), mkfs.bfs(8), mkfs.ext2(8), mkfs.ext3(8), mkfs.ext4(8),
       mkfs.minix(8), mkfs.msdos(8), mkfs.vfat(8), mkfs.xfs(8), mkfs.xiafs(8)