| .\" mkfs.fat.8 - manpage for fs.fatck |
| .\" |
| .\" Copyright (C) 2006-2014 Daniel Baumann <daniel@debian.org> |
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| .\"******************************************************************* |
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| .\" This file was generated with po4a. Translate the source file. |
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| .\"******************************************************************* |
| .TH MKFS.FAT 8 2015\-05\-16 3.0.28 dosfstools |
| .SH NAME |
| .\" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| \fBmkfs.fat\fP \- create an MS\-DOS filesystem under Linux |
| .SH SYNOPSIS |
| .\" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| \fBmkfs.fat\fP [\fIOPTIONS\fP] \fIDEVICE\fP [\fIBLOCK\-COUNT\fP] |
| .SH DESCRIPTION |
| .\" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| \fBmkfs.fat\fP is used to create an MS\-DOS filesystem under Linux on a device |
| (usually a disk partition). \fIDEVICE\fP is the special file corresponding to |
| the device (e.g. /dev/sdXX). \fIBLOCK\-COUNT\fP is the number of blocks on the |
| device. If omitted, \fBmkfs.fat\fP automatically determines the filesystem |
| size. |
| .SH OPTIONS |
| .IP \fB\-a\fP 4 |
| Normally, for any filesystem except very small ones, \fBmkfs.fat\fP will align |
| all the data structures to cluster size, to make sure that as long as the |
| partition is properly aligned, so will all the data structures in the |
| filesystem. This option disables alignment; this may provide a handful of |
| additional clusters of storage at the expense of a significant performance |
| degradation on RAIDs, flash media or large\-sector hard disks. |
| .IP "\fB \-A\fP" 4 |
| Use Atari variation of the MS\-DOS filesystem. This is default if |
| \fBmkfs.fat\fP is run on an Atari, then this option turns off Atari format. |
| There are some differences when using Atari format: If not directed |
| otherwise by the user, \fBmkfs.fat\fP will always use 2 sectors per cluster, |
| since GEMDOS doesn't like other values very much. It will also obey the |
| maximum number of sectors GEMDOS can handle. Larger filesystems are managed |
| by raising the logical sector size. Under Atari format, an Atari\-compatible |
| serial number for the filesystem is generated, and a 12 bit FAT is used only |
| for filesystems that have one of the usual floppy sizes (720k, 1.2M, 1.44M, |
| 2.88M), a 16 bit FAT otherwise. This can be overridden with the \fB\-F\fP |
| option. Some PC\-specific boot sector fields aren't written, and a boot |
| message (option \fB\-m\fP) is ignored. |
| .IP "\fB\-b\fP \fISECTOR\-OF\-BACKUP\fP" 4 |
| Selects the location of the backup boot sector for FAT32. Default depends |
| on number of reserved sectors, but usually is sector 6. The backup must be |
| within the range of reserved sectors. |
| .IP \fB\-c\fP 4 |
| Check the device for bad blocks before creating the filesystem. |
| .IP \fB\-C\fP 4 |
| Create the file given as \fIDEVICE\fP on the command line, and write the |
| to\-be\-created filesystem to it. This can be used to create the new |
| filesystem in a file instead of on a real device, and to avoid using \fBdd\fP |
| in advance to create a file of appropriate size. With this option, the |
| \fIBLOCK\-COUNT\fP must be given, because otherwise the intended size of the |
| filesystem wouldn't be known. The file created is a sparse file, which |
| actually only contains the meta\-data areas (boot sector, FATs, and root |
| directory). The data portions won't be stored on the disk, but the file |
| nevertheless will have the correct size. The resulting file can be copied |
| later to a floppy disk or other device, or mounted through a loop device. |
| .IP "\fB\-D\fP \fIDRIVE\-NUMBER\fP" 4 |
| Specify the BIOS drive number to be stored in the FAT boot sector. This |
| value is usually 0x80 for hard disks and 0x00 for floppy devices or |
| partitions to be used for floppy emulation. |
| .IP "\fB\-f\fP \fINUMBER\-OF\-FATS\fP" 4 |
| Specify the number of file allocation tables in the filesystem. The default |
| is 2. |
| .IP "\fB\-F\fP \fIFAT\-SIZE\fP" 4 |
| Specifies the type of file allocation tables used (12, 16 or 32 bit). If |
| nothing is specified, \fBmkfs.fat\fP will automatically select between 12, 16 |
| and 32 bit, whatever fits better for the filesystem size. |
| .IP "\fB\-h\fP \fINUMBER\-OF\-HIDDEN\-SECTORS\fP" 4 |
| Select the number of hidden sectors in the volume. Apparently some digital |
| cameras get indigestion if you feed them a CF card without such hidden |
| sectors, this option allows you to satisfy them. |
| .IP "\fB\-i\fP \fIVOLUME\-ID\fP" 4 |
| Sets the volume ID of the newly created filesystem; \fIVOLUME\-ID\fP is a 32\-bit |
| hexadecimal number (for example, 2e24ec82). The default is a number which |
| depends on the filesystem creation time. |
| .IP \fB\-I\fP 4 |
| It is typical for fixed disk devices to be partitioned so, by default, you |
| are not permitted to create a filesystem across the entire device. |
| \fBmkfs.fat\fP will complain and tell you that it refuses to work. This is |
| different when using MO disks. One doesn't always need partitions on MO |
| disks. The filesystem can go directly to the whole disk. Under other OSes |
| this is known as the 'superfloppy' format. This switch will force |
| \fBmkfs.fat\fP to work properly. |
| .IP "\fB\-l\fP \fIFILENAME\fP" 4 |
| Read the bad blocks list from \fIFILENAME\fP. |
| .IP "\fB\-m\fP \fIMESSAGE\-FILE\fP" 4 |
| Sets the message the user receives on attempts to boot this filesystem |
| without having properly installed an operating system. The message file |
| must not exceed 418 bytes once line feeds have been converted to carriage |
| return\-line feed combinations, and tabs have been expanded. If the filename |
| is a hyphen (\-), the text is taken from standard input. |
| .IP "\fB\-M\fP \fIFAT\-MEDIA\-TYPE\fP" 4 |
| Specify the media type to be stored in the FAT boot sector. This value is |
| usually 0xF8 for hard disks and is 0xF0 or a value from 0xF9 to 0xFF for |
| floppies or partitions to be used for floppy emulation. |
| .IP "\fB\-n\fP \fIVOLUME\-NAME\fP" 4 |
| Sets the volume name (label) of the filesystem. The volume name can be up |
| to 11 characters long. The default is no label. |
| .IP "\fB\-r\fP \fIROOT\-DIR\-ENTRIES\fP" 4 |
| Select the number of entries available in the root directory. The default |
| is 112 or 224 for floppies and 512 for hard disks. |
| .IP "\fB\-R\fP \fINUMBER\-OF\-RESERVED\-SECTORS\fP" 4 |
| Select the number of reserved sectors. With FAT32 format at least 2 |
| reserved sectors are needed, the default is 32. Otherwise the default is 1 |
| (only the boot sector). |
| .IP "\fB\-s\fP \fISECTORS\-PER\-CLUSTER\fP" 4 |
| Specify the number of disk sectors per cluster. Must be a power of 2, |
| i.e. 1, 2, 4, 8, ... 128. |
| .IP "\fB\-S\fP \fILOGICAL\-SECTOR\-SIZE\fP" 4 |
| Specify the number of bytes per logical sector. Must be a power of 2 and |
| greater than or equal to 512, i.e. 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384, or |
| 32768. |
| .IP \fB\-v\fP 4 |
| Verbose execution. |
| .IP \fB\-\-invariant\fP 4 |
| Use constants for normally randomly generated or time based data such as |
| volume ID and creation time. Multiple runs of \fBmkfs.fat\fP on the same |
| device create identical results with this option. Its main purpose is |
| testing \fBmkfs.fat\fP. |
| .IP \fB\-\-help\fP 4 |
| .\" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Display option summary and exit. |
| .SH BUGS |
| .\" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| \fBmkfs.fat\fP can not create boot\-able filesystems. This isn't as easy as you |
| might think at first glance for various reasons and has been discussed a lot |
| already. \fBmkfs.fat\fP simply will not support it ;) |
| .SH "SEE ALSO" |
| \fBfatlabel\fP(8) |
| .br |
| .\" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| \fBfsck.fat\fP(8) |
| .SH HOMEPAGE |
| .\" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| The home for the \fBdosfstools\fP project is its |
| .UR https://github.com/dosfstools/dosfstools |
| GitHub project page |
| .UE . |
| .SH AUTHORS |
| \fBdosfstools\fP were written by |
| .MT werner.almesberger@\:lrc.di.epfl.ch |
| Werner Almesberger |
| .ME , |
| .MT Roman.Hodek@\:informatik.\:uni-erlangen.de |
| Roman Hodek |
| .ME , |
| and others. The current maintainer is |
| .MT aeb@\:debian.org |
| Andreas Bombe |
| .ME . |