NAME

       mkfs.hfs — construct a new HFS Plus file system

SYNOPSIS

       mkfs.hfs   [-N   [partition-size]]  [-U  uid]  [-G  gid]  [-M  mask]  [-h  |  -w]  [-s]  [-b  block-size]
                [-c clump-size-list] [-i first-cnid] [-J [journal-size]] [-n  node-size-list]  [-v  volume-name]
                special

DESCRIPTION

       mkfs.hfs builds an HFS Plus file system on the specified special device.

       The  file system default parameters are calculated based on the size of the disk partition. Typically the
       defaults are reasonable, however mkfs.hfs has several options to allow the  defaults  to  be  selectively
       overridden.  The options are as follows:

       -N [partition-size]
                   Causes the file system parameters to be printed out without really creating the file system.

       -U uid      Set the owner of the file system's root directory to uid.

       -G gid      Set the group of the file system's root directory to gid.

       -M mask     Specify the access permissions mask for the file system's root directory.

       -h          Creates  a legacy HFS format filesystem. This option is not recommended for file systems that
                   will be primarily used with Mac OS X or Darwin.

       -s          Creates a case-sensitive HFS Plus filesystem. By default  a  case-insensitive  filesystem  is
                   created.   Case-sensitive  HFS  Plus  file systems require a Mac OS X version of 10.3 (Darwin
                   7.0) or later.

       -w          Adds an HFS wrapper around the HFS Plus file system.  This wrapper is required  if  the  file
                   system will be used to boot natively into Mac OS 9.

       -b block-size
                   The allocation block size of the file system.  The default value is 4096.

       -c clump-size-list
                   This specifies the clump and/or initial sizes, in allocation blocks, for the various metadata
                   files.   Clump  sizes  are specified with the -c option followed by a comma separated list of
                   the form arg=blocks.

                   Example:  -c c=5000,e=500

                   a=blocks    Set the attribute file clump size.

                   b=blocks    Set the allocation bitmap file clump size.

                   c=blocks    Set the catalog file clump size.

                   e=blocks    Set the extent overflow file clump size.

       -i first-cnid
                   This specifies the initial catalog node ID for user files and directories. The default  value
                   is 16.

       -J [journal-size]
                   Creates  a  journaled HFS+ volume.  The default journal size is 8MB.  Appending an 'M' to the
                   journal size implies megabytes (i.e. 64M is 64 megabytes).  The maximum journal size  is  512
                   megabytes.

       -n node-size-list
                   This specifies the b-tree node sizes, in bytes, for the various b-tree files.  Node sizes are
                   specified  with  the  -n option followed by a comma separated list of the form arg=bytes. The
                   node size must be a power of two and no larger than 32768 bytes.

                   Example:  -n c=8192,e=4096

                   a=bytes     Set the attribute b-tree node size.

                   c=bytes     Set the catalog b-tree node size.

                   e=bytes     Set the extent overflow b-tree node size.

       -v volume-name
                   Volume name (file system name) in ascii or UTF-8 format.

SEE ALSO

       mount(8)

HISTORY

       The mkfs.hfs command appeared in Mac OS X Server 1.0 .

Mac OS X                                          April 1, 2003                                     NEWFS_HFS(8)