Section 8: mkfs.ext2
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MKE2FS(8) MKE2FS(8)
NAME
mke2fs - create a Linux second extended file system
SYNOPSIS
mke2fs [ -c | -l filename ] [ -b block-size ] [ -f frag-
ment-size ] [ -i bytes-per-inode ] [ -N number-of-inodes ]
[ -n ] [ -m reserved-blocks-percentage ] [ -o creator-os ]
[ -O feature[,...] ] [ -q ] [ -r fs-revision-level ] [ -R
raid_options ] [ -s sparse-super-flag ] [ -v ] [ -F ] [ -L
volume-label ] [ -M last-mounted-directory ] [ -S ] [ -T
filesystem-type ] [ -V ] device [ blocks-count ]
DESCRIPTION
mke2fs is used to create a Linux second extended file sys-
tem on a device (usually a disk partition). device is the
special file corresponding to the device (e.g /dev/hdXX).
blocks-count is the number of blocks on the device. If
omitted, mke2fs automagically figures the file system
size.
OPTIONS
-b block-size
Specify the size of blocks in bytes. Valid block
size vales are 1024, 2048 and 4096 bytes per block.
If omitted, mke2fs block-size is determined by the
file system size and the expected usage of the
filesystem (see the -T option).
-c Check the device for bad blocks before creating the
file system, using a fast read-only test.
-f fragment-size
Specify the size of fragments in bytes.
-i bytes-per-inode
Specify the bytes/inode ratio. mke2fs creates an
inode for every bytes-per-inode bytes of space on
the disk. The larger the bytes-per-inode ratio,
the fewer inodes will be created. This value gen-
erally 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 cre-
ated, so be careful decided the correct value for
this parameter.
-n causes mke2fs to not actually create a filesystem,
but display what it would do if it were to create a
filesystem.
-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
E2fsprogs version 1.18 November 1999 1
MKE2FS(8) MKE2FS(8)
bytes-per-inode ratio). This allows the user to
specify the number of desired inodes directly.
-O feature[,...]
Create the filesystem with the listed set of fea-
tures (filesystem options). The following features
are supported: sparse_super, which cause the
filesystem to use sparse superblocks, and filetype,
which will cause the filesystem to store file type
information in directory entries. Currently, both
features are turned on by default unless mke2fs is
run on a system with a pre-2.2 Linux kernel. Warn-
ing: Pre-2.2 Linux kernels do not properly support
the filesystems that use either of these two fea-
tures. Filesystems that may need to mounted on
pre-2.2 kernels should be created with -O none
which will disable both of these features, even if
mke2fs is run on a system which can support these
features.
-l filename
Read the bad blocks list from filename.
-m reserved-blocks-percentage
Specify the percentage of reserved blocks for the
super-user. This value defaults to 5
-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
mke2fs executable.
-q Quiet execution. Useful if mke2fs is run in a
script.
-s sparse-super-flag
If sparse-super-flag is 1, then turn on the sparse
superblock flag in the superblock. Note: This
option is deprecated; use the -O option instead.
-v Verbose execution.
-F Force mke2fs to run, even if the specified device
is not a block special device, or appears to be
mounted.
-L Set the volume label for the filesystem.
-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.
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MKE2FS(8) MKE2FS(8)
-r revision
Set the filesystem revision for the new filesystem.
Note that 1.2 kernels only support revision 0
filesystems.
-R raid_options
Set raid-related options for the filesystem. Raid
options are comma separated, and may take an argu-
ment using the equals ('=') sign. Currently the
only supported argument is stride which takes as
its argument the number of blocks in a RAID stripe.
-S Write superblock and group descriptors only. This
is useful if all of the superblock and backup
superblocks are corrupted, and a last-ditch recov-
ery method is desired. It causes mke2fs to reini-
tialize the superblock and group descriptors, while
not touching the inode table and the block and
inode bitmaps. The e2fsck program should be run
immediately after this option is used, and there is
no guarantee that any data will be salvageable.
-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".
-V Print the version number of mke2fs and exit.
AUTHOR
This version of mke2fs has been written by Theodore Ts'o
.
BUGS
mke2fs accepts the -f option but currently ignores it
because the second extended file system does not support
fragments yet.
There may be some other ones. Please, report them to the
author.
AVAILABILITY
mke2fs is part of the e2fsprogs package and is available
for anonymous ftp from tsx-11.mit.edu in /pub/linux/pack-
ages/ext2fs.
SEE ALSO
badblocks(8), dumpe2fs(8), e2fsck(8), tune2fs(8)
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