Linux in a Nutshell, 6th Edition

Name

mkdosfs

Synopsis

mkdosfs [options] device [blocks]
mkfs.msdos [options] device [blocks]

System administration command. Format device as an MS-DOS filesystem. You may specify the number of blocks on the device or allow mkdosfs to guess.

Options

-A

Create an Atari MS-DOS filesystem.

-b backup-sector

Specify sector for backup boot sector. The default value depends on the number of reserved sectors, but is usually sector 6.

-c

Scan device for bad blocks before execution.

-C

Create and format a file suitable for use on a floppy disk. The device given on the command line should be a filename, and the number of blocks must also be specified.

-f n

Specify number of File Allocation Tables (FATs) to create (either 1 or 2).

-F fat-size

Create File Allocation Tables (FATs) of size fat-size. By default this will be between 12 and 16 bits. Set to 32 to create a FAT32 filesystem.

-i volume-id

Use the specified 32-bit hexadecimal volume-id instead of calculating a number based on the time of creation.

-I

Force installation to a device without partitions. This is useful when formating magneto-optical disks.

-l file

Read list of bad blocks from file.

-m message-file

Set the message to be used when the filesystem is booted without an installed operating system to the contents of the file message-file. The message may be up to 418 bytes in size. If filename is a hyphen, read text from standard input.

-n label

Set volume name for filesystem to label. The volume name may be up to 11 characters long.

-r maximum-entries

Set ...