MKFS(8)

NAME
mkfs - build a Linux file system

SYNOPSIS
mkfs [ -V ] [ -t fstype ] [ fs-options ] filesys [ blocks ]

DESCRIPTION
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 the sum of the following conditions:
    0    - No errors
    8    - Operational error
    16    - Usage or syntax error
    128    - Shared library error

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 /bin. Please see the file system-specific builder manual pages for further details.

OPTIONS

-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 type is deduced by searching for filesys in /etc/fstab and using the corresponding entry. If the type can not be deduced, 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.

BUGS
All generic options must precede and not be combined with file system-specific 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.

AUTHORS
David Engel (david@ods.com)
Fred N. van Kempen (waltje@uwalt.nl.mugnet.org)
The manual page was shamelessly adapted from Remy Card's version for the ext2 file system.

SEE ALSO
fsck(8), mkfs.minix(8), mkfs.ext(8), mkfs.ext2(8), mkfs.xiafs(8).