misc/mke2fs.8.in

.\" -*- nroff -*-
.\" Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995 by Theodore Ts'o.  All Rights Reserved.
.\" This file may be copied under the terms of the GNU Public License.
.\" 
.TH MKE2FS 8 "@E2FSPROGS_MONTH@ @E2FSPROGS_YEAR@" "E2fsprogs version @E2FSPROGS_VERSION@"
.SH NAME
mke2fs \- create a Linux second extended file system
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B mke2fs
[
.B \-c
| 
.\" .B \-t
.\" test
.\" |
.B \-l
.I filename
]
[
.B \-b
.I block-size
]
[
.B \-f
.I fragment-size
]
[
.B \-i
.I bytes-per-inode
]
[
.B \-N
.I number-of-inodes
]
[
.B \-m
.I reserved-blocks-percentage
]
[
.B \-o
.I creator-os
]
[
.B \-q
]
[
.B \-r fs-revision-level
]
[
.B -R raid_options
]
[
.B -s sparse-super-flag
]
[
.B \-v
]
[
.B \-F
]
[
.B \-L
.I volume-label
]
[
.B \-M
.I last-mounted-directory
]
[
.B \-S
]
[
.B \-T
.I filesystem-type
]
[
.B \-V
]
.I device
[
.I blocks-count
]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B mke2fs
is used to create a Linux second extended file system on a device (usually
a disk partition).
.br
.I device
is the special file corresponding to the device (e.g /dev/hdXX).
.br
.I blocks-count
is the number of blocks on the device.  If omitted,
.B mke2fs
automagically figures the file system size.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.I -b block-size
Specify the size of blocks in bytes.
.TP
.I -c
Check the device for bad blocks before creating the file system, using a
fast read-only test.
.TP
.I -f fragment-size
Specify the size of fragments in bytes.
.TP
.I -i bytes-per-inode
Specify the bytes/inode ratio. 
.B mke2fs
creates an inode for every
.I bytes-per-inode
bytes of space on the disk.  
The larger the bytes-per-inode ratio, the fewer inodes will be created.
This value generally shouldn't be smaller than
the blocksize of the filesystem, since then too many inodes will be made.  
Be warned that is not possible to expand the number of inodes on a 
filesystem after it is created, so be careful decided the correct
value for this parameter. 
.TP
.I -N number-of-inodes
overrides the default calculation of the number of inodes that should be 
reserved for the filesystem (which is based on the number of blocks and 
the bytes-per-inode ratio).  This allows the user to specify the number 
of desired inodes directly.
.TP
.I -l filename
Read the bad blocks list from
.I filename.
\.
.TP
.I -m reserved-blocks-percentage
Specify the percentage of reserved blocks for the super-user.  This value
defaults to 5%.
.\" .TP
.\" .I -t test
.\" Check the device for bad blocks before creating the file system
.\" using the specified test.
.TP
.I -o
Manually override the default value of the "creator os" field of the 
filesystem.  Normally the creator field is set by default to the native OS
of the
.B mke2fs
executable.
.TP
.I -q
Quiet execution.  Useful if 
.B mke2fs
is run in a script.
.TP
.I -s sparse-super-flag
If sparse-super-flag is 1, then turn on the sparse superblock flag.  
If 0, then turn off the sparse superblock flag.  (Currently, the sparse 
superblock flag defaults to off.)  
.B Warning:
The Linux 2.0 kernel does not properly support this feature.  Neither do
all Linux 2.1 kernels; please don't use this unless you know what you're
doing!
.TP
.I -v
Verbose execution.
.TP
.I -F
Force 
.B mke2fs
to run, even if the specified device is not a 
block special device, or appears to be mounted.
.TP
.I -L
Set the volume label for the filesystem.
.TP
.I -M
Set the last mounted directory for the filesystem.  This might be useful 
for the sake of utilities that key off of the last mounted directory to 
determine where the filesytem should be mounted.
.TP
.I -r revision
Set the filesystem revision for the new filesystem.  Note that 1.2
kernels only support revision 0 filesystems.
.TP
.I -R raid_options
Set raid-related options for the filesystem.  Raid options are comma
separated, and may take an argument using the equals ('=')  sign.
Currently the only supported argument is 
.I stride
which takes as its argument the number of blocks in a RAID stripe.
.TP
.I -S
Write superblock and group descriptors only.  This is useful if all of
the superblock and backup superblocks are corrupted, and a last-ditch
recovery method is desired.  It causes 
.B mke2fs
to reinitialize the 
superblock and group descriptors, while not touching the inode table
and the block and inode bitmaps.  The
.B e2fsck
program should be run immediately after this option is used, and there
is no guarantee that any data will be salvageable.
.TP
.I -T fs-type
Specify how the filesystem is going to be used, so that mke2fs can 
automatically determine the optimal filesystem parameters.  The only
filesystem type which is currently supported is "news".
.TP
.I -V
Print the version number of 
.B mke2fs
and exit.
.SH AUTHOR
This version of
.B mke2fs
has been written by Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu>.
.SH BUGS
.B mke2fs
accepts the -f option but currently ignores it because the second
extended file system does not support fragments yet.
.br
There may be some other ones.  Please, report them to the author.
.SH AVAILABILITY
.B mke2fs
is part of the e2fsprogs package and is available for anonymous 
ftp from tsx-11.mit.edu in /pub/linux/packages/ext2fs.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR badblocks (8),
.BR dumpe2fs (8),
.BR e2fsck (8),
.BR tune2fs (8)