.\" -*- nroff -*- .\" Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995 by Theodore Ts'o. All Rights Reserved. .\" This file may be copied under the terms of the GNU Public License. .\" .TH MKE2FS 8 "May 1996" "E2fsprogs version 1.04" .SH NAME mke2fs \- create a Linux second extended file system .SH SYNOPSIS .B mke2fs [ .B \-c | .\" .B \-t .\" test .\" | .B \-l filename ] [ .B \-b block-size ] [ .B \-f fragment-size ] [ .B \-i bytes-per-inode ] [ .B \-m reserved-blocks-percentage ] [ .B \-q ] [ .B \-v ] [ .B \-F ] [ .B \-S ] device [ blocks-count ] .SH DESCRIPTION .B mke2fs is used to create a Linux second extended file system on a device (usually a disk partition). .br .I device is the special file corresponding to the device (e.g /dev/hdXX). .br .I blocks-count is the number of blocks on the device. If omitted, .B mke2fs automagically figures the file system size. .SH OPTIONS .TP .I -b block-size Specify the size of blocks in bytes. .TP .I -c Check the device for bad blocks before creating the file system, using a fast read-only test. .TP .I -f fragment-size Specify the size of fragments in bytes. .TP .I -i bytes-per-inode Specify the bytes/inode ratio. .B mke2fs creates an inode for every .I bytes-per-inode bytes of space on the disk. This value defaults to 4096 bytes. .I bytes-per-inode must be at least 1024. .TP .I -l filename Read the bad blocks list from .I filename \. .TP .I -m reserved-blocks-percentage Specify the percentage of reserved blocks for the super-user. This value defaults to 5%. .\" .TP .\" .I -t test .\" Check the device for bad blocks before creating the file system .\" using the specified test. .TP .I -q Quiet execution. Useful if mke2fs is run in a script. .TP .I -v Verbose execution. .TP .I -F Force mke2fs to run, even if the specified device is not a block special device. .TP .I -S Write superblock and group descriptors only. This is useful if all of the superblock and backup superblocks are corrupted, and a last-ditch recovery method is desired. It causes mke2fs to reinitialize the superblock and group descriptors, while not touching the inode table and the block and inode bitmaps. The .B e2fsck program should be run immediately after this option is used, and there is no guarantee that any data will be salvageable. .SH AUTHOR This version of .B mke2fs has been written by Theodore Ts'o . .SH BUGS .B mke2fs accepts the -f option but currently ignores it because the second extended file system does not support fragments yet. .br There may be some other ones. Please, report them to the author. .SH AVAILABILITY .B mke2fs is available for anonymous ftp from ftp.ibp.fr and tsx-11.mit.edu in /pub/linux/packages/ext2fs. .SH SEE ALSO .BT badblocks (8), .BR dumpe2fs (8), .BR e2fsck (8), .BR tune2fs (8)