.\" -*- nroff -*-
.TH MKFS 8 "June 2011" "util-linux" "System Administration"
.SH NAME
mkfs \- build a Linux filesystem
.SH SYNOPSIS
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B mkfs
[\fIoptions\fR] [\fB-t\fR \fItype fs-options\fR] \fIdevice\fR [\fIsize\fR]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B mkfs
is used to build a Linux filesystem on a device, usually
a hard disk partition. The
.I device
argument is either the device name (e.g.
.IR /dev/hda1 ,
.IR /dev/sdb2 ),
or a regular file that shall contain the filesystem. The
.I size
argument is the number of blocks to be used for the filesystem.
.PP
The exit code returned by
.B mkfs
is 0 on success and 1 on failure.
.PP
In actuality,
.B mkfs
is simply a front-end for the various filesystem builders
(\fBmkfs.\fIfstype\fR)
available under Linux.
The filesystem-specific builder is searched for in a number
of directories like perhaps
.IR /sbin ,
.IR /sbin/fs ,
.IR /sbin/fs.d ,
.IR /etc/fs ,
.I /etc
(the precise list is defined at compile time but at least
contains
.I /sbin
and
.IR /sbin/fs ),
and finally in the directories
listed in the PATH environment variable.
Please see the filesystem-specific builder manual pages for
further details.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
\fB\-t\fR, \fB\-\-type\fR=\fITYPE\fR
Specifies the type of filesystem to be built.
If not specified, the default filesystem type
(currently ext2) is used.
.TP
.I 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.
.TP
\fB\-V\fR, \fB\-\-verbose\fR
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 useful for testing.
.TP
\fB\-V\fR, \fB\-\-version\fR
Display version information and exit. Option \fB\-V\fR will display
version information only when it is the only parameter, otherwise it
will work as \fB\-\-verbose\fR.
.TP
\fB\-h\fR, \fB\-\-help\fR
Display help and exit.
.SH BUGS
All generic options must precede and not be combined with
filesystem-specific options.
Some filesystem-specific programs do not support the
.B -V
(verbose) option, nor return meaningful exit codes.
Also, some filesystem-specific programs do not automatically
detect the device size and require the
.I blocks
parameter to be specified.
.SH AUTHORS
David Engel (david@ods.com)
.br
Fred N. van Kempen (waltje@uwalt.nl.mugnet.org)
.br
Ron Sommeling (sommel@sci.kun.nl)
.br
The manual page was shamelessly adapted from Remy Card's version
for the ext2 filesystem.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR fs (5),
.BR badblocks (8),
.BR fsck (8),
.BR mkdosfs (8),
.BR mke2fs (8),
.BR mkfs.bfs (8),
.BR mkfs.ext2 (8),
.BR mkfs.ext3 (8),
.BR mkfs.ext4 (8),
.BR mkfs.minix (8),
.BR mkfs.msdos (8),
.BR mkfs.vfat (8),
.BR mkfs.xfs (8),
.BR mkfs.xiafs (8)
.SH AVAILABILITY
The mkfs command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.
