| .\" mkfs.fat.8 - manpage for fs.fatck |
| .\" |
| .\" Copyright (C) 2006-2014 Daniel Baumann <daniel@debian.org> |
| .\" |
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| .\" |
| .TH MKFS.FAT 8 2015\-05\-16 3.0.28 "dosfstools" |
| .SH NAME |
| \fBmkfs.fat\fR \- create an MS-DOS filesystem under Linux |
| .\" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| .SH SYNOPSIS |
| \fBmkfs.fat\fR [\fIOPTIONS\fR] \fIDEVICE\fR [\fIBLOCK-COUNT\fR] |
| .\" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| .SH DESCRIPTION |
| \fBmkfs.fat\fR is used to create an MS-DOS filesystem under Linux on a device |
| (usually a disk partition). |
| \fIDEVICE\fR is the special file corresponding to the device (e.g. /dev/sdXX). |
| \fIBLOCK-COUNT\fR is the number of blocks on the device. |
| If omitted, \fBmkfs.fat\fR automatically determines the filesystem size. |
| .\" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| .SH OPTIONS |
| .IP "\fB\-a\fR" 4 |
| Normally, for any filesystem except very small ones, \fBmkfs.fat\fR 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\fR" 4 |
| Use Atari variation of the MS-DOS filesystem. |
| This is default if \fBmkfs.fat\fR 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\fR 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\fR option. |
| Some PC-specific boot sector fields aren't written, and a boot message (option |
| \fB\-m\fR) is ignored. |
| .IP "\fB\-b\fR \fISECTOR-OF-BACKUP\fR" 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" 4 |
| Check the device for bad blocks before creating the filesystem. |
| .IP "\fB\-C\fR" 4 |
| Create the file given as \fIDEVICE\fR 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\fR in advance to create a file of appropriate |
| size. |
| With this option, the \fIBLOCK-COUNT\fR 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\fR \fIDRIVE-NUMBER\fR" 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\fR \fINUMBER-OF-FATS\fR" 4 |
| Specify the number of file allocation tables in the filesystem. |
| The default is 2. |
| .IP "\fB\-F\fR \fIFAT-SIZE\fR" 4 |
| Specifies the type of file allocation tables used (12, 16 or 32 bit). |
| If nothing is specified, \fBmkfs.fat\fR will automatically select between 12, 16 |
| and 32 bit, whatever fits better for the filesystem size. |
| .IP "\fB\-h\fR \fINUMBER-OF-HIDDEN-SECTORS\fR" 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\fR \fIVOLUME-ID\fR" 4 |
| Sets the volume ID of the newly created filesystem; \fIVOLUME-ID\fR is a 32-bit |
| hexadecimal number (for example, 2e24ec82). |
| The default is a number which depends on the filesystem creation time. |
| .IP "\fB\-I\fR" 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\fR 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\fR to work properly. |
| .IP "\fB\-l\fR \fIFILENAME\fR" 4 |
| Read the bad blocks list from \fIFILENAME\fR. |
| .IP "\fB\-m\fR \fIMESSAGE-FILE\fR" 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\fR \fIFAT-MEDIA-TYPE\fR" 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\fR \fIVOLUME-NAME\fR" 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\fR \fIROOT-DIR-ENTRIES\fR" 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\fR \fINUMBER-OF-RESERVED-SECTORS\fR" 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\fR \fISECTORS-PER-CLUSTER\fR" 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\fR \fILOGICAL-SECTOR-SIZE\fR" 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\fR" 4 |
| Verbose execution. |
| .IP "\fB\-\-invariant\fR" 4 |
| Use constants for normally randomly generated or time based data such as |
| volume ID and creation time. |
| Multiple runs of \fBmkfs.fat\fR on the same device create identical results |
| with this option. |
| Its main purpose is testing \fBmkfs.fat\fR. |
| .IP "\fB\-\-help\fR" 4 |
| Display option summary and exit. |
| .\" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| .SH BUGS |
| \fBmkfs.fat\fR 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\fR simply will not support it ;) |
| .\" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| .SH SEE ALSO |
| \fBfatlabel\fR(8) |
| .br |
| \fBfsck.fat\fR(8) |
| .\" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| .SH HOMEPAGE |
| The home for the \fBdosfstools\fR project is its |
| .UR https://github.com/dosfstools/dosfstools |
| GitHub project page |
| .UE . |
| .\" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| .SH AUTHORS |
| \fBdosfstools\fR 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 . |