2 .\" Copyright 2006 by Theodore Ts'o. All Rights Reserved.
3 .\" This file may be copied under the terms of the GNU Public License.
5 .TH mke2fs.conf 5 "@E2FSPROGS_MONTH@ @E2FSPROGS_YEAR@" "E2fsprogs version @E2FSPROGS_VERSION@"
7 mke2fs.conf \- Configuration file for mke2fs
10 is the configuration file for
12 It controls the default parameters used by
14 when it is creating ext2 or ext3 filesystems.
18 file uses an INI-style format. Stanzas, or top-level sections, are
19 delimited by square braces: [ ]. Within each section, each line
20 defines a relation, which assigns tags to values, or to a subsection,
21 which contains further relations or subsections.
22 .\" Tags can be assigned multiple values
23 An example of the INI-style format used by this configuration file
38 subtag1 = subtag_value_a
40 subtag1 = subtag_value_b
42 subtag2 = subtag_value_c
52 Comments are delimited by a semicolon (';') or a hash ('#') character
53 at the beginning of the comment, and are terminated by the end of
56 Tags and values must be quoted using double quotes if they contain
57 spaces. Within a quoted string, the standard backslash interpretations
58 apply: "\en" (for the newline character),
59 "\et" (for the tab character), "\eb" (for the backspace character),
60 and "\e\e" (for the backslash character).
62 The following stanzas are used in the
64 file. They will be described in more detail in future sections of this
68 Contains relations which define the default parameters
71 In general, these defaults may be overridden by a definition in the
73 stanza, or by an command-line option provided by the user.
76 Contains relations which define defaults that should be used for specific
77 filesystem types. The filesystem type can be specified explicitly using
82 .SH THE [defaults] STANZA
83 The following relations are defined in the
88 This relation specifies the filesystems features which are enabled in
89 newly created filesystems. It may be overridden by the
91 relation found in the filesystem or usage type subsection of
97 This relation specifies a set of features that should be added or
98 removed to the features listed in the
100 relation. It may be overridden by the filesystem-specific
102 in the filesystem or usage type subsection of
111 This relation specifies the default filesystem type if the user does not
116 is not started using a program name of the form
117 .BI mkfs. fs-type\fR.
118 If both the user and the
120 file does not specify a default filesystem type, mke2fs will use a
121 default filesystem type of
123 if a journal was requested via a command-line option, or
128 This relation specifies the default blocksize if the user does not
129 specify a blocksize on the command line, and the filesystem-type
130 specific section of the configuration file does not specify a blocksize.
133 This relation specifies the default inode ratio if the user does not
134 specify one on the command line, and the filesystem-type
135 specific section of the configuration file does not specify a default
139 This relation specifies the default inode size if the user does not
140 specify one on the command line, and the filesystem-type
141 specific section of the configuration file does not specify a default
143 .SH THE [fs_types] STANZA
146 stanza names a filesystem type or usage type which can be specified via the
156 program constructs a list of fs_types by concatenating the filesystem
157 type (i.e., ext2, ext3, etc.) with the usage type list. For most
158 configuration options,
160 will look for a subsection in the
162 stanza corresponding with each entry in the constructed list, with later
163 entries overriding earlier filesystem or usage types.
165 example, consider the following
171 base_features = sparse_super,filetype,resize_inode,dir_index
185 features = has_journal
191 features = extents,flex_bg
207 features = ^resize_inode
215 If mke2fs started with a program name of
217 then the filesystem type of ext4 will be used. If the filesystem is
218 smaller than 3 megabytes, and no usage type is specified, then
223 This results in an fs_types list of "ext4, floppy". Both the ext4
224 subsection and the floppy subsection define an
226 relation, but since the later entries in the fs_types list supercede
227 earlier ones, the configuration parameter for fs_types.floppy.inode_size
228 will be used, so the filesystem will have an inode size of 128.
230 The exception to this resolution is the
232 tag, which is specifies a set of changes to the features used by the
233 filesystem, and which is cumulative. So in the above example, first
234 the configuration relation defaults.base_features would enable an
235 initial feature set with the sparse_super, filetype, resize_inode, and
236 dir_index features enabled. Then configuration relation
237 fs_types.ext4.features would enable the extents and flex_bg
238 features, and finally the configuration relation
239 fs_types.floppy.features would remove
240 the resize_inode feature, resulting in a filesystem feature set
241 consisting of the sparse_super, filetype, resize_inode, dir_index,
242 extents_and flex_bg features.
244 For each filesystem type, the following tags may be used in that
245 fs_type's subsection:
248 This relation specifies the features which are initially enabled for this
249 filesystem type. Only one
251 will be used, so if there are multiple entries in the fs_types list
252 whose subsections define the
254 relation, only the last will be used by
258 This relation specifies a comma-separated list of features edit
259 requests which modify the feature set
260 used by the newly constructed filesystem. The syntax is the same as the
262 command-line option to
264 that is, a feature can be prefixed by a caret ('^') symbol to disable
265 a named feature. Each
267 relation specified in the fs_types list will be applied in the order
268 found in the fs_types list.
271 This relation specifies set of features which should be enabled or
272 disabled after applying the features listed in the
276 relations. It may be overridden by the
278 command-line option to
282 This relation specifies the default blocksize if the user does not
283 specify a blocksize on the command line.
286 This relation is a boolean which specifies whether the inode table should
287 be lazily initialized. It only has meaning if the uninit_bg feature is
288 enabled. If lazy_itable_init is true and the uninit_bg feature is
289 enabled, the inode table will
290 not fully initialized by
292 This speeds up filesystem
293 initialization noitceably, but it requires the kernel to finish
294 initializing the filesystem in the background when the filesystem is
298 This relation specifies the default inode ratio if the user does not
299 specify one on the command line.
302 This relation specifies the default inode size if the user does not
303 specify one on the command line.
307 The configuration file for