2 .\" Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995 by Theodore Ts'o. All Rights Reserved.
3 .\" This file may be copied under the terms of the GNU Public License.
5 .TH MKE2FS 8 "@E2FSPROGS_MONTH@ @E2FSPROGS_YEAR@" "E2fsprogs version @E2FSPROGS_VERSION@"
7 mke2fs \- create a Linux second extended file system
40 .I reserved-blocks-percentage
77 .I last-mounted-directory
95 is used to create a Linux second extended file system on a device (usually
98 is the special file corresponding to the device (e.g
101 is the number of blocks on the device. If omitted,
103 automagically figures the file system size.
106 .BI \-b " block-size"
107 Specify the size of blocks in bytes. Valid block size vales are 1024,
108 2048 and 4096 bytes per block. If omitted,
110 block-size is determined by the file system size and the expected usage
111 of the filesystem (see the
116 Check the device for bad blocks before creating the file system, using a
119 .BI \-f " fragment-size"
120 Specify the size of fragments in bytes.
122 .BI \-i " bytes-per-inode"
123 Specify the bytes/inode ratio.
125 creates an inode for every
127 bytes of space on the disk.
130 ratio, the fewer inodes will be created.
131 This value generally shouldn't be smaller than
132 the blocksize of the filesystem, since then too many inodes will be made.
133 Be warned that is not possible to expand the number of inodes on a
134 filesystem after it is created, so be careful decided the correct
135 value for this parameter.
138 causes mke2fs to not actually create a filesystem, but display what it
139 would do if it were to create a filesystem.
141 .BI \-N " number-of-inodes"
142 overrides the default calculation of the number of inodes that should be
143 reserved for the filesystem (which is based on the number of blocks and
146 ratio). This allows the user to specify the number
147 of desired inodes directly.
149 .BI \-O " feature\fR[,...]"
150 Create the filesystem with the listed set of features
151 (filesystem options). The following features are supported:
153 which cause the filesystem to use sparse superblocks, and
155 which will cause the filesystem to store file type information in
156 directory entries. Currently, both features are turned on by default
159 is run on a system with a pre-2.2 Linux kernel.
161 Pre-2.2 Linux kernels do not properly
162 support the filesystems that use either of these two features. Filesystems
163 that may need to mounted on pre-2.2 kernels should be created with
166 which will disable both of these features, even if
168 is run on a system which can support these features.
171 Read the bad blocks list from
175 .BI -m " reserved-blocks-percentage"
176 Specify the percentage of reserved blocks for the super-user. This value
180 .\" Check the device for bad blocks before creating the file system
181 .\" using the specified test.
184 Manually override the default value of the "creator os" field of the
185 filesystem. Normally the creator field is set by default to the native OS
191 Quiet execution. Useful if
195 .BI \-s " sparse-super-flag"
198 is 1, then turn on the sparse superblock flag in the superblock.
200 This option is deprecated; use the
210 to run, even if the specified device is not a
211 block special device, or appears to be mounted.
214 Set the volume label for the filesystem.
217 Set the last mounted directory for the filesystem. This might be useful
218 for the sake of utilities that key off of the last mounted directory to
219 determine where the filesytem should be mounted.
222 Set the filesystem revision for the new filesystem. Note that 1.2
223 kernels only support revision 0 filesystems.
225 .BI \-R " raid_options"
226 Set raid-related options for the filesystem. Raid options are comma
227 separated, and may take an argument using the equals ('=') sign.
228 Currently the only supported argument is
230 which takes as its argument the number of blocks in a RAID stripe.
233 Write superblock and group descriptors only. This is useful if all of
234 the superblock and backup superblocks are corrupted, and a last-ditch
235 recovery method is desired. It causes
238 superblock and group descriptors, while not touching the inode table
239 and the block and inode bitmaps. The
241 program should be run immediately after this option is used, and there
242 is no guarantee that any data will be salvageable.
245 Specify how the filesystem is going to be used, so that mke2fs can
246 automatically determine the optimal filesystem parameters. The only
247 filesystem type which is currently supported is "news".
250 Print the version number of
256 has been written by Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu>.
261 option but currently ignores it because the second
262 extended file system does not support fragments yet.
264 There may be some other ones. Please, report them to the author.
267 is part of the e2fsprogs package and is available for anonymous
268 ftp from tsx-11.mit.edu in /pub/linux/packages/ext2fs.