mkfs.fat man page on Kali

Man page or keyword search:  
man Server   9211 pages
apropos Keyword Search (all sections)
Output format
Kali logo
[printable version]

MKFS.FAT(8)							   MKFS.FAT(8)

NAME
       mkfs.fat - create an MS-DOS filesystem under Linux

SYNOPSIS
       mkfs.fat [OPTIONS] DEVICE [BLOCK-COUNT]

DESCRIPTION
       mkfs.fat is used to create an MS-DOS filesystem under Linux on a device
       (usually a disk partition).  DEVICE is the special  file	 corresponding
       to the device (e.g. /dev/sdXX).	BLOCK-COUNT is the number of blocks on
       the device.  If omitted, mkfs.fat automatically determines the filesys‐
       tem size.

OPTIONS
       -a  Normally,  for any filesystem except very small ones, mkfs.fat 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.

	-A Use	Atari  variation of the MS-DOS filesystem.  This is default if
	   mkfs.fat is run on an Atari, then this option turns off Atari  for‐
	   mat.	  There	 are  some differences when using Atari format: If not
	   directed otherwise by the user, mkfs.fat 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 filesys‐
	   tems 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 -F
	   option.  Some PC-specific boot sector fields aren't written, and  a
	   boot message (option -m) is ignored.

       -b SECTOR-OF-BACKUP
	   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.

       -c  Check the device for bad blocks before creating the filesystem.

       -C  Create  the file given as DEVICE 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 dd in advance to create a file	 of  appropriate  size.	  With
	   this	 option,  the BLOCK-COUNT must be given, because otherwise the
	   intended size of the filesystem wouldn't be known.  The  file  cre‐
	   ated	 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.

       -D DRIVE-NUMBER
	   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.

       -f NUMBER-OF-FATS
	   Specify  the	 number	 of  file allocation tables in the filesystem.
	   The default is 2.

       -F FAT-SIZE
	   Specifies the type of file allocation tables used  (12,  16	or  32
	   bit).   If nothing is specified, mkfs.fat will automatically select
	   between 12, 16 and 32 bit, whatever fits better for the  filesystem
	   size.

       -h NUMBER-OF-HIDDEN-SECTORS
	   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.

       -i VOLUME-ID
	   Sets	 the volume ID of the newly created filesystem; VOLUME-ID is a
	   32-bit hexadecimal number (for example, 2e24ec82).  The default  is
	   a number which depends on the filesystem creation time.

       -I  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.  mkfs.fat 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  'super‐
	   floppy' format.  This switch will force mkfs.fat to work properly.

       -l FILENAME
	   Read the bad blocks list from FILENAME.

       -m MESSAGE-FILE
	   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.

       -M FAT-MEDIA-TYPE
	   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  emu‐
	   lation.

       -n VOLUME-NAME
	   Sets	 the  volume  name (label) of the filesystem.  The volume name
	   can be up to 11 characters long.  The default is no label.

       -r ROOT-DIR-ENTRIES
	   Select the number of entries available in the root directory.   The
	   default is 112 or 224 for floppies and 512 for hard disks.

       -R NUMBER-OF-RESERVED-SECTORS
	   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).

       -s SECTORS-PER-CLUSTER
	   Specify the number of disk sectors per cluster.  Must be a power of
	   2, i.e. 1, 2, 4, 8, ... 128.

       -S LOGICAL-SECTOR-SIZE
	   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.  Values larger than 4096 are not  conforming
	   to the FAT file system specification and may not work everywhere.

       -v  Verbose execution.

       --invariant
	   Use	constants  for	normally randomly generated or time based data
	   such as volume ID and creation time.	 Multiple runs of mkfs.fat  on
	   the	same  device  create  identical results with this option.  Its
	   main purpose is testing mkfs.fat.

       --help
	   Display option summary and exit.

BUGS
       mkfs.fat can not create boot-able filesystems.  This isn't as  easy  as
       you  might  think at first glance for various reasons and has been dis‐
       cussed a lot already.  mkfs.fat simply will not support it ;)

SEE ALSO
       fatlabel(8)
       fsck.fat(8)

HOMEPAGE
       The home	 for  the  dosfstools  project	is  its	 GitHub	 project  page
       ⟨https://github.com/dosfstools/dosfstools⟩.

AUTHORS
       dosfstools  were	 written  by  Werner  Almesberger ⟨werner.almesberger@
       lrc.di.epfl.ch⟩, Roman Hodek  ⟨Roman.Hodek@informatik.uni-erlangen.de⟩,
       and others.  The current maintainer is Andreas Bombe ⟨aeb@debian.org⟩.

dosfstools 4.1			  2016-01-25			   MKFS.FAT(8)
[top]

List of man pages available for Kali

Copyright (c) for man pages and the logo by the respective OS vendor.

For those who want to learn more, the polarhome community provides shell access and support.

[legal] [privacy] [GNU] [policy] [cookies] [netiquette] [sponsors] [FAQ]
Tweet
Polarhome, production since 1999.
Member of Polarhome portal.
Based on Fawad Halim's script.
....................................................................
Vote for polarhome
Free Shell Accounts :: the biggest list on the net