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WIPEFS(8)                                       System Administration                                       WIPEFS(8)



NAME
       wipefs - wipe a signature from a device

SYNOPSIS
       wipefs [-ahnpqtV] [-o offset] device...

DESCRIPTION
       wipefs  can  erase filesystem, raid or partition-table signatures (magic strings) from the specified device to
       make the signatures invisible for libblkid.

       wipefs does not erase the filesystem itself nor any other data from the device.  When used without options  -a
       or -o, it lists all visible filesystems and the offsets of their basic signatures.

       wipefs calls BLKRRPART ioctl when erase partition table to inform kernel about the change.

       Note  that some filesystems or some partition tables store more magic strings on the devices.  The wipefs com‐
       mand lists only the first offset where a magic string has been detected.  The device is not scanned for  addi‐
       tional  magic strings for the same filesystem.  It is possible that after wipefs -o offset the same filesystem
       or partition table will still be visible by another magic string on another offset.

       When used with option -a, all magic strings that are visible for libblkid are erased.

       Note that by default wipefs does not erase nested partition tables  on  non-whole  disk  devices.  The  option
       --force is required.


OPTIONS
       -a, --all
              Erase  all  available  signatures.   The  set  of  erased signatures can be restricted with the -t list
              option.

       -f, --force
              Force erasure, even if the filesystem is mounted.  This is required in order to erase the partition ta‐
              ble on a block device.

       -h, --help
              Print help and exit.

       -n, --no-act
              Causes everything to be done except for the write() call.

       -o, --offset offset
              Specify  the  location  (in bytes) of the signature which should be erased from the device.  The offset
              number may include a "0x" prefix; then the number will be interpreted as a hex value.  It  is  possible
              to specify multiple -o options.

              The  offset  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.

       -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'.

       -q, --quiet
              Suppress output messages after successful signature wipe.

ENVIRONMENT
       Setting LIBBLKID_DEBUG=0xffff enables debug output.

SEE ALSO
       blkid(8), findfs(8)

AVAILABILITY
       The  wipefs  command  is  part  of   the   util-linux   package   and   is   available   from   ftp://ftp.ker‐
       nel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.



util-linux                                           October 2009                                           WIPEFS(8)