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NAME

       mkfs - build a Linux file system

SYNOPSIS

       mkfs [-V] [-t fstype] [fs-options] filesys [blocks]

DESCRIPTION

       mkfs  is  used to build a Linux file system on a device, usually a hard
       disk partition.  filesys is either the device  name  (e.g.   /dev/hda1,
       /dev/sdb2),  or  a  regular  file  that  shall contain the file system.
       blocks is the number of blocks to be used for the file system.

       The exit code returned by mkfs is 0 on success and 1 on failure.

       In actuality, mkfs is simply a front-end for the  various  file  system
       builders (mkfs.fstype) available under Linux.  The file system-specific
       builder is searched for in a number of directories like perhaps  /sbin,
       /sbin/fs,  /sbin/fs.d,  /etc/fs,  /etc  (the precise list is defined at
       compile time but at least contains /sbin and /sbin/fs), and finally  in
       the  directories  listed  in the PATH environment variable.  Please see
       the file system-specific builder manual pages for further details.

OPTIONS

       -V     Produce  verbose  output,  including  all  file  system-specific
              commands  that  are  executed.  Specifying this option more than
              once inhibits execution of any  file  system-specific  commands.
              This is really only useful for testing.

       -t fstype
              Specifies  the  type  of  file  system  to  be  built.   If  not
              specified, the default file  system  type  (currently  ext2)  is
              used.

       fs-options
              File  system-specific  options  to  be  passed  to the real file
              system builder.  Although not guaranteed, the following  options
              are supported by most file system builders.

       -c     Check the device for bad blocks before building the file system.

       -l filename
              Read the bad blocks list from filename

       -v     Produce verbose output.

BUGS

       All generic options must precede and not be combined with file  system-
       specific  options.   Some  file system-specific programs do not support
       the -v (verbose) option, nor return meaningful exit codes.  Also,  some
       file  system-specific  programs  do not automatically detect the device
       size and require the blocks 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 file system.

SEE ALSO

       fs(5),   badblocks(8),  fsck(8),  mkdosfs(8),  mke2fs(8),  mkfs.bfs(8),
       mkfs.ext2(8), mkfs.ext3(8), mkfs.minix(8), mkfs.msdos(8), mkfs.vfat(8),
       mkfs.xfs(8), mkfs.xiafs(8)

AVAILABILITY

       The  mkfs command is part of the util-linux-ng package and is available
       from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux-ng/.