.\" -*- nroff -*-
.\" Copyright 2006 by Theodore Ts'o.  All Rights Reserved.
.\" This file may be copied under the terms of the GNU Public License.
.\" 
.TH mke2fs.conf 5 "@E2FSPROGS_MONTH@ @E2FSPROGS_YEAR@" "E2fsprogs version @E2FSPROGS_VERSION@"
.SH NAME
mke2fs.conf \- Configuration file for mke2fs
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I mke2fs.conf
is the configuration file for 
.BR mke2fs (8).  
It controls the default parameters used by 
.BR mke2fs (8)
when it is creating ext2 or ext3 filesystems.
.PP
The
.I mke2fs.conf
file uses an INI-style format.  Stanzas, or top-level sections, are 
delimited by square braces: [ ].  Within each section, each line 
defines a relation, which assigns tags to values, or to a subsection,
which contains further relations or subsections.   
.\" Tags can be assigned multiple values
An example of the INI-style format used by this configuration file 
follows below:
.P
	[section1]
.br
		tag1 = value_a
.br
		tag1 = value_b
.br
		tag2 = value_c
.P
	[section 2]
.br
		tag3 = {
.br
			subtag1 = subtag_value_a
.br
			subtag1 = subtag_value_b
.br
			subtag2 = subtag_value_c
.br
		}
.br
		tag1 = value_d
.br
		tag2 = value_e
.br
	}
.P
Comments are delimited by a semicolon (';') or a hash ('#') character 
at the beginning of the comment, and are terminated by the end of 
line character.
.P
Tags and values must be quoted using double quotes if they contain
spaces.  Within a quoted string, the standard backslash interpretations 
apply: "\en" (for the newline character), 
"\et" (for the tab character), "\eb" (for the backspace character), 
and "\e\e" (for the backslash character).
.P
The following stanzs are used in the 
.I mke2fs.conf
file.  They will be described in more detail in future sections of this
document.
.TP 
.I [defaults]
Contains relations which define the default parameters 
used by
.BR mke2fs (8).
In general, these defaults may be overridden by a definition in the
.B fs_types
stanza, or by an command-line option provided by the user.
.TP 
.I [fs_types]
Contains relations which define defaults that should be used for specific
filesystem types.  The filesystem type can be specified explicitly using
the 
.B -T
option to
.BR mke2fs (8).
If no filesystem type is specified, 
.BR mke2fs (8)
will use the filesystem type 
.I floppy
if the filesystem size is less than or equal to 3 megabytes.  
If the filesystem size is greater than 3 but less than or equal to 
512 megabytes, 
.BR mke2fs (8)
will use the filesystem
.IR small .
Otherwise, 
.BR mke2fs (8)
will use the default filesystem type
.IR default .
.SH THE [defaults] STANZA
The following relations are defined in the 
.I [defaults]
stanza.
.TP
.I base_features
This relation specifies the filesystems features which are enabled in
newly created filesystems.  It may be overriden by the
.I base_features
relation found in the filesystem-type-specific subsection of
the
.I [fs_types] 
stanza.
.TP
.I default_features
This relation specifies a set of features that should be added or
removed to the features listed in the
.I base_features
relation.  It may be overriden by the filesystem-specific 
.I default_features
in the filesystem-type subection of
.IR [fs_types] ,
and by the 
.B -O
command-line option
to 
.BR mke2fs (8).
.TP
.I blocksize
This relation specifies the default blocksize if the user does not
specify a blocksize on the command line, and the filesystem-type
specific section of the configuration file does not specify a blocksize.
.TP
.I inode_ratio
This relation specifies the default inode ratio if the user does not
specify one on the command line, and the filesystem-type
specific section of the configuration file does not specify a default
inode ratio.
.SH THE [fs_types] STANZA
Each tag in the
.I [fs_types] 
stanza names a filesystem type which can be specified via the 
.B -T
option to
.BR mke2fs (8).
The value of the tag is a subsection where the relations in that
subsection define the defaults for that filesystem type. For
example:
.P
[fs_types]
.br
	small = {
.br
		blocksize = 1024
.br
		inode_ratio = 4096
.br
	}
.br
	floppy = {
.br
		blocksize = 1024
.br
	}
.P
For each filesystem type, the following tags may be used in that 
fs_type's subsection:
.TP
.I base_features
This relation specifies the features which are enabled for this
filesystem type.
.TP
.I default_features
This relation specifies set of features which should be enabled or 
disabled to the features listed in the
.I base_features
relation.  It may be overriden by the 
.B -O
command-line option to
.BR mke2fs (8).
.TP
.I blocksize
This relation specifies the default blocksize if the user does not
specify a blocksize on the command line.
.TP
.I inode_ratio
This relation specifies the default inode ratio if the user does not
specify one on the command line.
.SH FILES
.TP
.I /etc/mke2fs.conf
The configuration file for 
.BR mke2fs (8).
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR mke2fs (8)