Linux in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition

Name

mke2fs

Synopsis

                  mke2fs [options] device [blocks]
mkfs.ext2 [options] device [blocks]

System administration command. Format device as a Linux Second Extended Filesystem. You may specify the number of blocks on the device or allow mke2fs to guess.

Options

-b block-size

Specify block size in bytes.

-c

Scan device for bad blocks before execution.

-f fragment-size

Specify fragment size in bytes.

-i bytes-per-inode

Create an inode for each bytes-per-inode of space. bytes-per-inode must be 1024 or greater; it is 4096 by default.

-j

Create an ext3 journal. This is the same as invoking mkfs.ext3.

-l filename

Consult filename for a list of bad blocks.

-m percentage

Reserve percentage percent of the blocks for use by privileged users.

-n

Don’t create the filesystem, just show what would happen if it were run. This option is overridden by -F.

-o os

Set filesystem operating system type to os. The default value is usually Linux.

-q

Quiet mode.

-r revision

Set filesystem revision number to revision.

-v

Verbose mode.

-F

Force mke2fs to run even if filesystem is mounted or device is not a block special device. This option is probably best avoided.

-J parameterlist

Use specified parameterlist to create an ext3 journal. The following two parameters may be given in a comma-separated list:

size= journal-size

Create a journal of journal-size megabytes. The size may be between 1024 filesystem blocks and 102,400 filesystem blocks in size (e.g., 1-100 megabytes if using 1K blocks, 4-400 megabytes if using ...