WIPEFS(8) System Administration WIPEFS(8) NAME wipefs - wipe a signature from a device SYNOPSIS wipefs [options] device... wipefs [--backup] -o offset device... wipefs [--backup] -a 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 any options, wipefs lists all visible filesystems and the offsets of their basic signatures. The default output is subject to change. So whenever possible, you should avoid using default outputs in your scripts. Always explicitly define expected columns by using --output columns-list in environments where a stable output is required. wipefs calls the BLKRRPART ioctl when it has erased a partition-table sig- nature to inform the kernel about the change. The ioctl is called as the last step and when all specified signatures from all specified devices are already erased. This feature can be used to wipe content on partition de- vices as well as a partition table on a disk device, for example by wipefs -a /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdc2 /dev/sdc. Note that some filesystems and some partition tables store more magic strings on the device (e.g., FAT, ZFS, GPT). The wipefs command (since v2.31) lists all the offsets where magic strings have been detected. When option -a is used, all magic strings that are visible for libblkid(3) are erased. In this case the wipefs scans the device again after each modi- fication (erase) until no magic string is found. Note that by default wipefs does not erase nested partition tables on non-whole disk devices. For this the option --force is required. OPTIONS -a, --all Erase all available signatures. The set of erased signatures can be re- stricted with the -t option. When performed on a partitioned whole-disk device like /dev/sdX, it will erase only the partition tables, not the content of the partitions. -b, --backup[=dir] Create a signature backup to the file wipefs-<devname>-<offset>.bak in $HOME or the directory specified as the optional argument. For more de- tails see the EXAMPLE section. -f, --force Force erasure, even if the filesystem is mounted. This is required in order to erase a partition-table signature on a block device. -J, --json Use JSON output format. --lock[=mode] Use exclusive BSD lock for device or file it operates. The optional ar- gument mode can be yes, no (or 1 and 0) or nonblock. If the mode argu- ment is omitted, it defaults to "yes". This option overwrites environ- ment variable $LOCK_BLOCK_DEVICE. The default is not to use any lock at all, but it's recommended to avoid collisions with udevd or other tools. -i, --noheadings Do not print a header line. -O, --output list Specify which output columns to print. Use --help to get a list of all supported columns. -n, --no-act Causes everything to be done except for the write(2) call. -o, --offset offset Specify the location (in bytes) of the signature which should be erased from the device. The offset number may include a "0x" prefix; then the number will be interpreted as a hex value. It is possible to specify multiple -o options. The offset argument may be followed by the multiplicative suffixes KiB (=1024), MiB (=1024*1024), and so on for GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB and YiB (the "iB" is optional, e.g., "K" has the same meaning as "KiB"), or the suffixes KB (=1000), MB (=1000*1000), and so on for GB, TB, PB, EB, ZB and YB. -p, --parsable Print out in parsable instead of printable format. Encode all poten- tially unsafe characters of a string to the corresponding hex value prefixed by '\x'. -q, --quiet Suppress any messages after a successful signature wipe. -t, --types list Limit the set of printed or erased signatures. More than one type may be specified in a comma-separated list. The list or individual types can be prefixed with 'no' to specify the types on which no action should be taken. For more details see mount(8). -h, --help Display help text and exit. -V, --version Display version and exit. ENVIRONMENT LIBBLKID_DEBUG=all enables libblkid(3) debug output. LOCK_BLOCK_DEVICE=<mode> use exclusive BSD lock. The mode is "1" or "0". See --lock for more de- tails. EXAMPLES wipefs /dev/sda* Prints information about sda and all partitions on sda. wipefs --all --backup /dev/sdb Erases all signatures from the device /dev/sdb and creates a signature backup file ~/wipefs-sdb-<offset>.bak for each signature. dd if=~/wipefs-sdb-0x00000438.bak of=/dev/sdb seek=$((0x00000438)) bs=1 conv=notrunc Restores an ext2 signature from the backup file ~/wipefs-sdb-0x00000438.bak. AUTHORS Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com> SEE ALSO blkid(8), findfs(8) REPORTING BUGS For bug reports, use the issue tracker <https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues>. AVAILABILITY The wipefs command is part of the util-linux package which can be down- loaded from Linux Kernel Archive <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>. util-linux 2.41.2 2025-09-22 WIPEFS(8)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | ENVIRONMENT | EXAMPLES | AUTHORS | SEE ALSO | REPORTING BUGS | AVAILABILITY
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