mkfs(8) [bsd man page]
MKFS(8) System Manager's Manual MKFS(8) NAME
mkfs - construct a file system SYNOPSIS
/sbin/mkfs [ -i bytes ] [ -s size ] [ -m gap ] [ -n modulus ] special DESCRIPTION
N.B.: file systems are normally created with the newfs(8) command. Mkfs constructs a file system by writing on the special file special. The size of the filesystem in logical blocks is specified by the -s size option. Logical blocks are 1K (2 sectors) under 2.11BSD. NOTE: The newfs(8) program's -s option is in units of sectors. Newfs(8) converts this to filesystem (logical) blocks for mkfs(8). The number of inodes is calculated based on the argument bytes to the -i option. The default is 4096. If more inodes are desired in a filesystem (there is an absolute maximum of 65500) then a lower value for bytes should be used, perhaps 3072 or even 2048. The flags -m gap and -n modulus determine the block interleaving of the freelist that will be constructed, where gap is the distance between successive 1024-byte blocks, and modulus is the number of blocks before the pattern repeats, typically one cylinder. The optimal values for these parameters vary with the speed and geometry of the disk, as well as the speed of the processor. Newfs(8) will calculate the correct values in almost all cases from the disklabel. SEE ALSO
fs(5), dir(5), disklabel(8), fsck(8), mkproto(8) newfs(8) BUGS
The lost+found directory is created but the boot block is left uninitialized (see disklabel(8).) 3rd Berkeley Distribution November 16, 1996 MKFS(8)
Check Out this Related Man Page
MKFS.MINIX(8) System Administration MKFS.MINIX(8) NAME
mkfs.minix - make a Minix filesystem SYNOPSIS
mkfs.minix [options] device [size-in-blocks] DESCRIPTION
mkfs.minix creates a Linux MINIX filesystem on a device (usually a disk partition). The device is usually of the following form: /dev/hda[1-8] (IDE disk 1) /dev/hdb[1-8] (IDE disk 2) /dev/sda[1-8] (SCSI disk 1) /dev/sdb[1-8] (SCSI disk 2) The device may be a block device or a image file of one, but this is not enforced. Expect not much fun on a character device :-). The size-in-blocks parameter is the desired size of the file system, in blocks. It is present only for backwards compatibility. If omit- ted the size will be determined automatically. Only block counts strictly greater than 10 and strictly less than 65536 are allowed. OPTIONS
-c, --check Check the device for bad blocks before creating the filesystem. If any are found, the count is printed. -n, --namelength length Specify the maximum length of filenames. Currently, the only allowable values are 14 and 30 for file system versions 1 and 2. Ver- sion 3 allows only value 60. The default is 30. -i, --inodes number Specify the number of inodes for the filesystem. -l, --badblocks filename Read the list of bad blocks from filename. The file has one bad-block number per line. The count of bad blocks read is printed. -1 Make a Minix version 1 filesystem. This is the default. -2, -v Make a Minix version 2 filesystem. -3 Make a Minix version 3 filesystem. -V, --version Display version information and exit. The long option cannot be combined with other options. -h, --help Display help text and exit. EXIT CODES
The exit code returned by mkfs.minix is one of the following: 0 No errors 8 Operational error 16 Usage or syntax error SEE ALSO
fsck(8), mkfs(8), reboot(8) AVAILABILITY
The mkfs.minix command is part of the util-linux package and is available from https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/. util-linux June 2015 MKFS.MINIX(8)