.\" -*- nroff -*-
.\" Copyright 2006 by Theodore Ts'o. All Rights Reserved.
.\" This file may be copied under the terms of the GNU Public License.
-.\"
+.\"
.TH mke2fs.conf 5 "@E2FSPROGS_MONTH@ @E2FSPROGS_YEAR@" "E2fsprogs version @E2FSPROGS_VERSION@"
.SH NAME
mke2fs.conf \- Configuration file for mke2fs
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I mke2fs.conf
-is the configuration file for
-.BR mke2fs (8).
-It controls the default parameters used by
+is the configuration file for
+.BR mke2fs (8).
+It controls the default parameters used by
.BR mke2fs (8)
when it is creating ext2, ext3, or ext4 filesystems.
.PP
The
.I mke2fs.conf
-file uses an INI-style format. Stanzas, or top-level sections, are
-delimited by square braces: [ ]. Within each section, each line
+file uses an INI-style format. Stanzas, or top-level sections, are
+delimited by square braces: [ ]. Within each section, each line
defines a relation, which assigns tags to values, or to a subsection,
-which contains further relations or subsections.
+which contains further relations or subsections.
.\" Tags can be assigned multiple values
-An example of the INI-style format used by this configuration file
+An example of the INI-style format used by this configuration file
follows below:
.P
[section1]
.br
}
.P
-Comments are delimited by a semicolon (';') or a hash ('#') character
-at the beginning of the comment, and are terminated by the end of
+Comments are delimited by a semicolon (';') or a hash ('#') character
+at the beginning of the comment, and are terminated by the end of
line character.
.P
Tags and values must be quoted using double quotes if they contain
-spaces. Within a quoted string, the standard backslash interpretations
-apply: "\en" (for the newline character),
-"\et" (for the tab character), "\eb" (for the backspace character),
+spaces. Within a quoted string, the standard backslash interpretations
+apply: "\en" (for the newline character),
+"\et" (for the tab character), "\eb" (for the backspace character),
and "\e\e" (for the backslash character).
.P
Some relations expect a boolean value. The parser is quite liberal on
boolean true value, and ``no'', ``n'', ``false'', ``nil'', ``0'',
``off'' as a boolean false value.
.P
-The following stanzas are used in the
+The following stanzas are used in the
.I mke2fs.conf
file. They will be described in more detail in future sections of this
document.
In general, these defaults may be overridden by a definition in the
.B fs_types
stanza, or by an command-line option provided by the user.
-.TP
+.TP
.I [fs_types]
Contains relations which define defaults that should be used for specific
-filesystem types. The filesystem type can be specified explicitly using
-the
-.B -T
-option to
-.BR mke2fs (8).
+file system and usage types. The file system type and usage type can be
+specified explicitly using
+the
+.BR \-t and \-T
+options to
+.BR mke2fs (8),
+respectively.
.SH THE [options] STANZA
The following relations are defined in the
.I [options]
user has not answered the question. Defaults to 0, which means to wait
until the user answers the question one way or another.
.SH THE [defaults] STANZA
-The following relations are defined in the
+The following relations are defined in the
.I [defaults]
stanza.
.TP
.I base_features
relation found in the filesystem or usage type subsection of
the
-.I [fs_types]
+.I [fs_types]
stanza.
.TP
.I default_features
This relation specifies a set of features that should be added or
removed to the features listed in the
.I base_features
-relation. It may be overridden by the filesystem-specific
+relation. It may be overridden by the filesystem-specific
.I default_features
in the filesystem or usage type subsection of
.IR [fs_types] ,
-and by the
+and by the
.B -O
command-line option
-to
+to
.BR mke2fs (8).
.TP
.I enable_periodic_fsck
.BI mkfs. fs-type\fR.
If both the user and the
.B mke2fs.conf
-file does not specify a default filesystem type, mke2fs will use a
+file do not specify a default filesystem type, mke2fs will use a
default filesystem type of
.IR ext3
if a journal was requested via a command-line option, or
.I ext2
if not.
.TP
-.I blocksize
-This relation specifies the default blocksize if the user does not
-specify a blocksize on the command line, and the filesystem-type
-specific section of the configuration file does not specify a blocksize.
-.TP
-.I hash_alg
-This relation specifies the default hash algorithm used for the
-new filesystems with hashed b-tree directories. Valid algorithms
-accepted are:
-.IR legacy ,
-.IR half_md4 ,
-and
-.IR tea .
-.TP
-.I inode_ratio
-This relation specifies the default inode ratio if the user does not
-specify one on the command line, and the filesystem-type
-specific section of the configuration file does not specify a default
-inode ratio.
-.TP
-.I inode_size
-This relation specifies the default inode size if the user does not
-specify one on the command line, and the filesystem-type
-specific section of the configuration file does not specify a default
-inode size.
-.TP
-.I reserved_ratio
-This relation specifies the default percentage of filesystem blocks
-reserved for the super-user, if the user does not
-specify one on the command line, and the filesystem-type
-specific section of the configuration file does not specify a default
-reserved ratio. This value can be a floating point number.
-.TP
.I undo_dir
This relation specifies the directory where the undo file should be
stored. It can be overridden via the
.IR none ,
.B mke2fs
will not create an undo file.
+.PP
+In addition, any tags that can be specified in a per-file system tags
+subsection as defined below (e.g.,
+.IR blocksize ,
+.IR hash_alg ,
+.IR inode_ratio ,
+.IR inode_size ,
+.IR reserved_ratio ,
+etc.) can also be specified in the
+.I defaults
+stanza to specify the default value to be used if the user does not
+specify one on the command line, and the filesystem-type
+specific section of the configuration file does not specify a default value.
.SH THE [fs_types] STANZA
Each tag in the
-.I [fs_types]
+.I [fs_types]
stanza names a filesystem type or usage type which can be specified via the
.B \-t
or
.P
The exception to this resolution is the
.I features
-tag, which is specifies a set of changes to the features used by the
+tag, which specifies a set of changes to the features used by the
filesystem, and which is cumulative. So in the above example, first
the configuration relation defaults.base_features would enable an
initial feature set with the sparse_super, filetype, resize_inode, and
features, and finally the configuration relation
fs_types.floppy.features would remove
the resize_inode feature, resulting in a filesystem feature set
-consisting of the sparse_super, filetype, resize_inode, dir_index,
+consisting of the sparse_super, filetype, dir_index,
extents_and flex_bg features.
.P
-For each filesystem type, the following tags may be used in that
-fs_type's subsection:
+For each filesystem type, the following tags may be used in that
+fs_type's subsection. These tags may also be used in the
+.I default
+section:
.TP
.I base_features
This relation specifies the features which are initially enabled for this
found in the fs_types list.
.TP
.I default_features
-This relation specifies set of features which should be enabled or
+This relation specifies set of features which should be enabled or
disabled after applying the features listed in the
.I base_features
and
specify a blocksize on the command line.
.TP
.I lazy_itable_init
-This boolean relation specifies whether the inode table should
+This boolean relation specifies whether the inode table should
be lazily initialized. It only has meaning if the uninit_bg feature is
enabled. If lazy_itable_init is true and the uninit_bg feature is
enabled, the inode table will
-not fully initialized by
+not be fully initialized by
.BR mke2fs (8).
This speeds up filesystem
initialization noticeably, but it requires the kernel to finish
Thie relations specifies whether the alignment should be relative to the
beginning of the hard drive (assuming that the starting offset of the
partition is available to mke2fs). The default value is false, which
-if will cause hugefile alignment to be relative to the beginning of the
+will cause hugefile alignment to be relative to the beginning of the
file system.
.TP
.I hugefiles_name
is creating them. By default, zero blocks will be written to the huge
files to avoid stale data from being made available to potentially
untrusted user programs, unless the device supports a discard/trim
-operation which will take care of zeroing the device blocks. By
+operation which will take care of zeroing the device blocks. By setting
.I zero_hugefiles
to false, this step will always be skipped, which can be useful if it is
known that the disk has been previously erased, or if the user programs
data.
.SH THE [devices] STANZA
Each tag in the
-.I [devices]
+.I [devices]
stanza names device name so that per-device defaults can be specified.
.TP
.I fs_type
.SH FILES
.TP
.I /etc/mke2fs.conf
-The configuration file for
+The configuration file for
.BR mke2fs (8).
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR mke2fs (8)