Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)

FreeBSD Manual Pages

  
 
  

home | help
MKFS(8)			     System Administration		       MKFS(8)

NAME
       mkfs - build a Linux filesystem

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

DESCRIPTION
       This mkfs frontend is deprecated	in favour of filesystem	specific
       mkfs.<type> utils.

       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	status 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 via your	PATH environment setting only. 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.

       -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
	   useful for testing.

       -h, --help
	   Display help	text and exit.

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

BUGS
       All generic options must	precede	and not	be combined with
       filesystem-specific options. Some filesystem-specific programs do not
       automatically detect the	device size and	require	the size parameter to
       be specified.

AUTHORS
       David Engel <david@ods.com>, Fred N. van	Kempen
       <waltje@uwalt.nl.mugnet.org>, Ron Sommeling <sommel@sci.kun.nl>.

       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)

REPORTING BUGS
       For bug reports,	use the	issue tracker at
       https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues.

AVAILABILITY
       The mkfs	command	is part	of the util-linux package which	can be
       downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
       <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.

util-linux 2.39.4		  2024-01-31			       MKFS(8)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=mkfs&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+14.3.quarterly>

home | help