Provided by: xfsprogs_5.13.0-1ubuntu2.1_amd64 bug

NAME

       mkfs.xfs - construct an XFS filesystem

SYNOPSIS

       mkfs.xfs [ -b block_size_options ] [ -m global_metadata_options ] [ -d data_section_options ] [ -f ] [ -i
       inode_options ] [ -l log_section_options ] [  -n  naming_options  ]  [  -p  protofile  ]  [  -q  ]  [  -r
       realtime_section_options ] [ -s sector_size_options ] [ -L label ] [ -N ] [ -K ] device
       mkfs.xfs -V

DESCRIPTION

       mkfs.xfs  constructs  an  XFS  filesystem  by  writing  on  a  special file using the values found in the
       arguments of the command line.  It is invoked automatically by mkfs(8)  when  it  is  given  the  -t  xfs
       option.

       In  its  simplest  (and  most commonly used form), the size of the filesystem is determined from the disk
       driver.  As an example, to make a filesystem with an internal log on the first  partition  on  the  first
       SCSI disk, use:

              mkfs.xfs /dev/sda1

       The  metadata  log  can  be  placed  on  another  device to reduce the number of disk seeks.  To create a
       filesystem on the first partition on the first SCSI disk with a 10MiB log located on the first  partition
       on the second SCSI disk, use:

              mkfs.xfs -l logdev=/dev/sdb1,size=10m /dev/sda1

       Each  of  the  option  elements  in  the  argument  list  above  can be given as multiple comma-separated
       suboptions if multiple suboptions apply to the same option.  Equivalently, each main option can be  given
       multiple  times with different suboptions.  For example, -l internal,size=10m and -l internal -l size=10m
       are equivalent.

       In the descriptions below, sizes are given in sectors, bytes, blocks,  kilobytes,  megabytes,  gigabytes,
       etc.   Sizes  are  treated  as  hexadecimal  if  prefixed by 0x or 0X, octal if prefixed by 0, or decimal
       otherwise.  The following lists possible multiplication suffixes:
              s - multiply by sector size (default = 512, see -s option below).
              b - multiply by filesystem block size (default = 4K, see -b option below).
              k - multiply by one kilobyte (1,024 bytes).
              m - multiply by one megabyte (1,048,576 bytes).
              g - multiply by one gigabyte (1,073,741,824 bytes).
              t - multiply by one terabyte (1,099,511,627,776 bytes).
              p - multiply by one petabyte (1,024 terabytes).
              e - multiply by one exabyte (1,048,576 terabytes).

       When specifying parameters in units of sectors or filesystem blocks, the -s option or the -b  option  may
       be used to specify the size of the sector or block.  If the size of the block or sector is not specified,
       the default sizes (block: 4KiB, sector: 512B) will be used.

       Many feature options allow an optional  argument  of  0  or  1,  to  explicitly  disable  or  enable  the
       functionality.

OPTIONS

       Options  may  be  specified  either on the command line or in a configuration file.  Not all command line
       options can be specified in configuration files; only the command line options followed  by  a  [section]
       label can be used in a configuration file.

       Options  that  can  be  used in configuration files are grouped into related sections containing multiple
       options.  The command line options and configuration files use the same  option  sections  and  grouping.
       Configuration  file section names are listed in the command line option sections below.  Option names and
       values are the same for both command line and configuration file specification.

       Options specified are the combined set of command line  parameters  and  configuration  file  parameters.
       Duplicated options will result in a respecification error, regardless of the location they were specified
       at.

       -c configuration_file_option
              This option specifies the files  that  mkfs  configuration  will  be  obtained  from.   The  valid
              configuration_file_option is:

                   options=name
                          The  configuration  options will be sourced from the file specified by the name option
                          string.  This  option  can  be  use  either  an  absolute  or  relative  path  to  the
                          configuration file to be read.

       -b block_size_options
       Section Name: [block]
              This  option  specifies the fundamental block size of the filesystem.  The valid block_size_option
              is:

                   size=value
                          The filesystem block size is specified with a value in bytes.  The  default  value  is
                          4096 bytes (4 KiB), the minimum is 512, and the maximum is 65536 (64 KiB).

                          Although  mkfs.xfs  will accept any of these values and create a valid filesystem, XFS
                          on Linux can only mount filesystems with pagesize or smaller blocks.

       -m global_metadata_options
       Section Name: [metadata]
              These options specify metadata format options that either apply to the entire filesystem or aren't
              easily characterised by a specific functionality group. The valid global_metadata_options are:

                   bigtime=value
                          This option enables filesystems that can handle inode timestamps from December 1901 to
                          July 2486, and quota timer expirations from January 1970 to July 2486.  The  value  is
                          either 0 to disable the feature, or 1 to enable large timestamps.

                          If  this  feature  is  not  enabled,  the  filesystem  can only handle timestamps from
                          December 1901 to January 2038, and quota timers from January 1970 to February 2106.

                          By default, mkfs.xfs will not enable this feature.  If the option -m  crc=0  is  used,
                          the large timestamp feature is not supported and is disabled.

                   crc=value
                          This  is used to create a filesystem which maintains and checks CRC information in all
                          metadata objects on disk. The value is either 0 to disable the feature, or 1 to enable
                          the use of CRCs.

                          CRCs enable enhanced error detection due to hardware issues, whilst the format changes
                          also improves crash recovery algorithms and the ability of various tools  to  validate
                          and  repair  metadata  corruptions  when  they  are  found.  The CRC algorithm used is
                          CRC32c, so the overhead is dependent on CPU architecture as some  CPUs  have  hardware
                          acceleration  of  this  algorithm.  Typically the overhead of calculating and checking
                          the CRCs is not noticeable in normal operation.

                          By default, mkfs.xfs will enable metadata CRCs.

                          Formatting a filesystem without CRCs selects the V4 format, which  is  deprecated  and
                          will  be removed from upstream in September 2030.  Distributors may choose to withdraw
                          support for the V4 format earlier than this date.  Several other options, noted below,
                          are only tunable on V4 formats, and will be removed along with the V4 format itself.

                   finobt=value
                          This  option  enables  the use of a separate free inode btree index in each allocation
                          group. The value is either 0 to disable the feature, or 1 to create a free inode btree
                          in each allocation group.

                          The  free  inode  btree mirrors the existing allocated inode btree index which indexes
                          both used and free inodes. The free inode btree does not index used  inodes,  allowing
                          faster, more consistent inode allocation performance as filesystems age.

                          By  default,  mkfs.xfs  will create free inode btrees for filesystems created with the
                          (default) -m crc=1 option set. When the option -m crc=0 is used, the free inode  btree
                          feature is not supported and is disabled.

                   inobtcount=value
                          This  option  causes  the  filesystem to record the number of blocks used by the inode
                          btree and the free inode btree.  This can be used to reduce mount times when the  free
                          inode btree is enabled.

                          By  default, mkfs.xfs will not enable this option.  This feature is only available for
                          filesystems created with the (default) -m finobt=1 option set.   When  the  option  -m
                          finobt=0 is used, the inode btree counter feature is not supported and is disabled.

                   uuid=value
                          Use  the  given  value  as  the filesystem UUID for the newly created filesystem.  The
                          default is to generate a random UUID.

                   rmapbt=value
                          This option enables the creation of a reverse-mapping btree index in  each  allocation
                          group.  The value is either 0 to disable the feature, or 1 to create the btree.

                          The reverse mapping btree maps filesystem blocks to the owner of the filesystem block.
                          Most of the mappings will be to an inode number and an offset, though there will  also
                          be  mappings  to filesystem metadata.  This secondary metadata can be used to validate
                          the primary metadata or to pinpoint exactly which data has been lost when a disk error
                          occurs.

                          By  default,  mkfs.xfs  will  not create reverse mapping btrees.  This feature is only
                          available for filesystems created with the (default) -m crc=1  option  set.  When  the
                          option  -m  crc=0  is  used, the reverse mapping btree feature is not supported and is
                          disabled.

                   reflink=value
                          This option enables the use  of  a  separate  reference  count  btree  index  in  each
                          allocation  group.  The  value  is  either  0 to disable the feature, or 1 to create a
                          reference count btree in each allocation group.

                          The reference count btree enables the sharing of physical  extents  between  the  data
                          forks  of  different  files, which is commonly known as "reflink".  Unlike traditional
                          Unix filesystems which assume that every inode and logical block pair map to a  unique
                          physical  block,  a reflink-capable XFS filesystem removes the uniqueness requirement,
                          allowing up to four billion arbitrary inode/logical block pairs to map to  a  physical
                          block.   If  a  program  tries  to write to a multiply-referenced block in a file, the
                          write will be redirected to a new block, and that file's  logical-to-physical  mapping
                          will be changed to the new block ("copy on write").  This feature enables the creation
                          of per-file snapshots and deduplication.  It is only available for the data  forks  of
                          regular files.

                          By  default, mkfs.xfs will create reference count btrees and therefore will enable the
                          reflink feature.  This feature is only available  for  filesystems  created  with  the
                          (default)  -m  crc=1 option set. When the option -m crc=0 is used, the reference count
                          btree feature is not supported and reflink is disabled.

                          Note: the filesystem DAX mount option ( -o dax ) is incompatible with  reflink-enabled
                          XFS  filesystems.   To use filesystem DAX with XFS, specify the -m reflink=0 option to
                          mkfs.xfs to disable the reflink feature.

       -d data_section_options
       Section Name: [data]
              These options specify the location, size,  and  other  parameters  of  the  data  section  of  the
              filesystem. The valid data_section_options are:

                   agcount=value
                          This  is  used  to  specify  the  number of allocation groups. The data section of the
                          filesystem is divided into allocation groups to improve the performance of  XFS.  More
                          allocation  groups  imply that more parallelism can be achieved when allocating blocks
                          and inodes. The minimum allocation group size is 16 MiB;  the  maximum  size  is  just
                          under  1  TiB.   The  data  section of the filesystem is divided into value allocation
                          groups (default value is scaled automatically based on the underlying device size).

                   agsize=value
                          This is an alternative to using the agcount suboption. The value is the  desired  size
                          of  the allocation group expressed in bytes (usually using the m or g suffixes).  This
                          value must be a multiple of the filesystem block size, and must be at least 16MiB, and
                          no more than 1TiB, and may be automatically adjusted to properly align with the stripe
                          geometry.  The agcount and agsize suboptions are mutually exclusive.

                   cowextsize=value
                          Set the copy-on-write extent size hint on all inodes created by mkfs.xfs.   The  value
                          must  be  provided  in  units of filesystem blocks.  If the value is zero, the default
                          value (currently 32 blocks) will be used.  Directories will pass on this hint to newly
                          created regular files and directories.

                   name=value
                          This can be used to specify the name of the special file containing the filesystem. In
                          this case, the log section must be specified as internal (with  a  size,  see  the  -l
                          option below) and there can be no real-time section.

                   file[=value]
                          This  is  used to specify that the file given by the name suboption is a regular file.
                          The value is either 0 or 1, with 1 signifying that the file is regular. This suboption
                          is used only to make a filesystem image. If the value is omitted then 1 is assumed.

                   size=value
                          This is used to specify the size of the data section. This suboption is required if -d
                          file[=1] is given. Otherwise, it is only needed if the filesystem should  occupy  less
                          space than the size of the special file.

                   sunit=value
                          This  is  used  to  specify the stripe unit for a RAID device or a logical volume. The
                          value has to be specified in 512-byte block units. Use the su suboption to specify the
                          stripe unit size in bytes. This suboption ensures that data allocations will be stripe
                          unit aligned when the current end of file is being  extended  and  the  file  size  is
                          larger  than  512KiB.  Also inode allocations and the internal log will be stripe unit
                          aligned.

                   su=value
                          This is an alternative to using sunit.  The su suboption is used to specify the stripe
                          unit  for  a RAID device or a striped logical volume. The value has to be specified in
                          bytes, (usually using the m or g suffixes). This value  must  be  a  multiple  of  the
                          filesystem block size.

                   swidth=value
                          This  is  used  to  specify  the  stripe  width for a RAID device or a striped logical
                          volume. The value has to be specified in 512-byte block units. Use the sw suboption to
                          specify  the  stripe  width size in bytes.  This suboption is required if -d sunit has
                          been specified and it has to be a multiple of the -d sunit suboption.

                   sw=value
                          suboption is an alternative to using swidth.  The sw suboption is used to specify  the
                          stripe  width for a RAID device or striped logical volume. The value is expressed as a
                          multiplier of the stripe unit, usually the same as the number of stripe members in the
                          logical volume configuration, or data disks in a RAID device.

                          When  a  filesystem is created on a logical volume device, mkfs.xfs will automatically
                          query the logical volume for appropriate sunit and swidth values.

                   noalign
                          This option disables automatic geometry detection and creates the  filesystem  without
                          stripe  geometry  alignment  even  if  the  underlying  storage  device  provides this
                          information.

                   rtinherit=value
                          If value is set to 1, all inodes created by mkfs.xfs will be created with the realtime
                          flag  set.   The  default  is  0.  Directories will pass on this flag to newly created
                          regular files and directories.

                   projinherit=value
                          All inodes created by mkfs.xfs will be assigned  the  project  quota  id  provided  in
                          value.   Directories  will  pass  on the project id to newly created regular files and
                          directories.

                   extszinherit=value
                          All inodes created by mkfs.xfs will have this value extent  size  hint  applied.   The
                          value  must  be provided in units of filesystem blocks.  Directories will pass on this
                          hint to newly created regular files and directories.

                   daxinherit=value
                          If value is set to 1, all inodes created by mkfs.xfs will be created with the DAX flag
                          set.   The  default is 0.  Directories will pass on this flag to newly created regular
                          files and directories.  By default, mkfs.xfs will not enable DAX mode.

       -f     Force overwrite when an existing filesystem is detected on the device.  By default, mkfs.xfs  will
              not write to the device if it suspects that there is a filesystem or partition table on the device
              already.

       -i inode_options
       Section Name: [inode]
              This option specifies the inode size of the filesystem, and  other  inode  allocation  parameters.
              The  XFS inode contains a fixed-size part and a variable-size part.  The variable-size part, whose
              size is affected by this option, can contain: directory data,  for  small  directories;  attribute
              data,  for small attribute sets; symbolic link data, for small symbolic links; the extent list for
              the file, for files with a small number of extents; and the root of a tree describing the location
              of extents for the file, for files with a large number of extents.

              The valid inode_options are:

                   size=value | perblock=value
                          The  inode  size  is  specified either as a value in bytes with size= or as the number
                          fitting in a filesystem block with perblock=.  The minimum (and default) value is  256
                          bytes  without  crc,  512  bytes  with crc enabled.  The maximum value is 2048 (2 KiB)
                          subject to the restriction  that  the  inode  size  cannot  exceed  one  half  of  the
                          filesystem block size.

                          XFS  uses  64-bit inode numbers internally; however, the number of significant bits in
                          an inode number is affected by filesystem geometry.  In practice, filesystem size  and
                          inode  size  are  the  predominant  factors.   The  Linux  kernel  (on 32 bit hardware
                          platforms) and most applications cannot currently handle inode numbers greater than 32
                          significant  bits,  so  if  no  inode size is given on the command line, mkfs.xfs will
                          attempt to choose a size such that inode numbers will be < 32 bits.  If an inode  size
                          is  specified,  or  if  a filesystem is sufficiently large, mkfs.xfs will warn if this
                          will create inode numbers > 32 significant bits.

                   maxpct=value
                          This specifies the maximum percentage of space in the filesystem that can be allocated
                          to  inodes.  The  default  value  is 25% for filesystems under 1TB, 5% for filesystems
                          under 50TB and 1% for filesystems over 50TB.

                          In the default inode allocation mode, inode blocks are chosen such that inode  numbers
                          will  not exceed 32 bits, which restricts the inode blocks to the lower portion of the
                          filesystem. The data block allocator will avoid these low blocks  to  accommodate  the
                          specified  maxpct,  so a high value may result in a filesystem with nothing but inodes
                          in a significant portion of the lower blocks of the filesystem.  (This restriction  is
                          not  present  when  the  filesystem  is  mounted  with  the  inode64  option on 64-bit
                          platforms).

                          Setting the value to 0 means that essentially all of the filesystem can  become  inode
                          blocks, subject to inode32 restrictions.

                          This value can be modified with xfs_growfs(8).

                   align[=value]
                          This  is  used  to  specify  that  inode allocation is or is not aligned. The value is
                          either 0 or 1, with 1 signifying that inodes are allocated aligned.  If the  value  is
                          omitted,  1  is assumed. The default is that inodes are aligned.  Aligned inode access
                          is normally more efficient than unaligned access; alignment must be established at the
                          time  the filesystem is created, since inodes are allocated at that time.  This option
                          can be used to turn off inode alignment when the filesystem needs to be mountable by a
                          version  of  IRIX  that does not have the inode alignment feature (any release of IRIX
                          before 6.2, and IRIX 6.2 without XFS patches).

                          This option is only tunable on the deprecated V4 format.

                   attr=value
                          This is used to specify the version of extended attribute inline allocation policy  to
                          be  used.   By  default, this is 2, which uses an efficient algorithm for managing the
                          available inline inode space between attribute and extent data.

                          The previous version 1, which has fixed regions for attribute and extent data, is kept
                          for backwards compatibility with kernels older than version 2.6.16.

                          This option is only tunable on the deprecated V4 format.

                   projid32bit[=value]
                          This  is  used  to enable 32bit quota project identifiers. The value is either 0 or 1,
                          with 1 signifying that 32bit projid are to be enabled.  If the value is omitted, 1  is
                          assumed.  (This default changed in release version 3.2.0.)

                          This option is only tunable on the deprecated V4 format.

                   sparse[=value]
                          Enable  sparse  inode  chunk allocation. The value is either 0 or 1, with 1 signifying
                          that sparse allocation is enabled.  If the value is  omitted,  1  is  assumed.  Sparse
                          inode  allocation  is  disabled  by  default.  This  feature  is  only  available  for
                          filesystems formatted with -m crc=1.

                          When enabled, sparse inode allocation allows the filesystem to allocate  smaller  than
                          the  standard  64-inode  chunk  when  free  space is severely limited. This feature is
                          useful for filesystems that might fragment free space over  time  such  that  no  free
                          extents  are  large  enough  to accommodate a chunk of 64 inodes. Without this feature
                          enabled, inode allocations can fail with out of space errors under  severe  fragmented
                          free space conditions.

       -l log_section_options
       Section Name: [log]
              These  options  specify  the  location,  size,  and  other  parameters  of  the log section of the
              filesystem. The valid log_section_options are:

                   agnum=value
                          If the log is internal, allocate it in this AG.

                   internal[=value]
                          This is used to specify that the log section is a piece of the data section instead of
                          being  another device or logical volume. The value is either 0 or 1, with 1 signifying
                          that the log is internal. If the value is omitted, 1 is assumed.

                   logdev=device
                          This is used to specify that the log section should reside on the device separate from
                          the data section. The internal=1 and logdev options are mutually exclusive.

                   size=value
                          This is used to specify the size of the log section.

                          If  the  log  is  contained within the data section and size isn't specified, mkfs.xfs
                          will try to select a suitable log size depending on the size of the  filesystem.   The
                          actual logsize depends on the filesystem block size and the directory block size.

                          Otherwise,  the  size  suboption  is  only needed if the log section of the filesystem
                          should occupy less space than the size of the special file. The value is specified  in
                          bytes  or blocks, with a b suffix meaning multiplication by the filesystem block size,
                          as described above. The overriding minimum value for size is 512  blocks.   With  some
                          combinations  of  filesystem  block  size,  inode  size, and directory block size, the
                          minimum log size is larger than 512 blocks.

                   version=value
                          This specifies the version of the log. The current default  is  2,  which  allows  for
                          larger  log  buffer  sizes,  as  well as supporting stripe-aligned log writes (see the
                          sunit and su options, below).

                          The previous version 1, which is limited to 32k  log  buffers  and  does  not  support
                          stripe-aligned writes, is kept for backwards compatibility with very old 2.4 kernels.

                          This option is only tunable on the deprecated V4 format.

                   sunit=value
                          This  specifies the alignment to be used for log writes. The value has to be specified
                          in 512-byte block units. Use the su suboption to specify the log stripe unit  size  in
                          bytes.   Log writes will be aligned on this boundary, and rounded up to this boundary.
                          This gives major improvements in performance on some configurations such  as  software
                          RAID5  when  the sunit is specified as the filesystem block size.  The equivalent byte
                          value  must  be  a  multiple  of  the  filesystem  block  size.  Version  2  logs  are
                          automatically selected if the log sunit suboption is specified.

                          The su suboption is an alternative to using sunit.

                   su=value
                          This  is  used  to  specify  the  log  stripe. The value has to be specified in bytes,
                          (usually using the s or b suffixes). This value must be a multiple of  the  filesystem
                          block  size.   Version  2  logs  are automatically selected if the log su suboption is
                          specified.

                   lazy-count=value
                          This changes the method of logging various  persistent  counters  in  the  superblock.
                          Under  metadata  intensive workloads, these counters are updated and logged frequently
                          enough that the superblock updates become a serialization point in the filesystem. The
                          value can be either 0 or 1.

                          With  lazy-count=1,  the  superblock  is not modified or logged on every change of the
                          persistent counters. Instead, enough  information  is  kept  in  other  parts  of  the
                          filesystem to be able to maintain the persistent counter values without needed to keep
                          them in the superblock.  This gives significant improvements in  performance  on  some
                          configurations.   The  default value is 1 (on) so you must specify lazy-count=0 if you
                          want to disable this feature for older kernels which don't support it.

                          This option is only tunable on the deprecated V4 format.

       -n naming_options
       Section Name: [naming]
              These options specify the version and size parameters for  the  naming  (directory)  area  of  the
              filesystem. The valid naming_options are:

                   size=value
                          The directory block size is specified with a value in bytes.  The block size must be a
                          power of 2 and cannot be less than the filesystem block size.  The default size  value
                          for  version  2 directories is 4096 bytes (4 KiB), unless the filesystem block size is
                          larger than 4096, in which case the default value is the filesystem block  size.   For
                          version 1 directories the block size is the same as the filesystem block size.

                   version=value
                          The  naming  (directory)  version  value  can  be either 2 or 'ci', defaulting to 2 if
                          unspecified.  With version 2 directories, the directory block size can be any power of
                          2 size from the filesystem block size up to 65536.

                          The  version=ci option enables ASCII only case-insensitive filename lookup and version
                          2 directories. Filenames are  case-preserving,  that  is,  the  names  are  stored  in
                          directories using the case they were created with.

                          Note: Version 1 directories are not supported.

                   ftype=value
                          This feature allows the inode type to be stored in the directory structure so that the
                          readdir(3) and getdents(2) do not need to look up the inode  to  determine  the  inode
                          type.

                          The value is either 0 or 1, with 1 signifying that filetype information will be stored
                          in the directory structure.  The default value is 1.

                          When CRCs are enabled (the default), the ftype functionality is  always  enabled,  and
                          cannot be turned off.

                          In other words, this option is only tunable on the deprecated V4 format.

       -p protofile
              If  the  optional  -p protofile argument is given, mkfs.xfs uses protofile as a prototype file and
              takes its directions from that file.  The blocks  and  inodes  specifiers  in  the  protofile  are
              provided  for  backwards  compatibility, but are otherwise unused.  The syntax of the protofile is
              defined by a number of tokens separated by spaces or newlines. Note that the line numbers are  not
              part of the syntax but are meant to help you in the following discussion of the file contents.

                   1       /stand/diskboot
                   2       4872 110
                   3       d--777 3 1
                   4       usr     d--777 3 1
                   5       sh      ---755 3 1 /bin/sh
                   6       ken     d--755 6 1
                   7               $
                   8       b0      b--644 3 1 0 0
                   9       c0      c--644 3 1 0 0
                   10      fifo    p--644 3 1
                   11      slink   l--644 3 1 /a/symbolic/link
                   12      :  This is a comment line
                   13      $
                   14      $

              Line  1  is  a  dummy  string.   (It  was  formerly the bootfilename.)  It is present for backward
              compatibility; boot blocks are not used on SGI systems.

              Note that some string of characters must be present as the first line of the proto file  to  cause
              it to be parsed correctly; the value of this string is immaterial since it is ignored.

              Line  2  contains  two numeric values (formerly the numbers of blocks and inodes).  These are also
              merely for backward compatibility: two numeric values must appear at this point for the proto file
              to be correctly parsed, but their values are immaterial since they are ignored.

              The  lines  3 through 11 specify the files and directories you want to include in this filesystem.
              Line 3 defines the root directory. Other directories and files that you want in the filesystem are
              indicated by lines 4 through 6 and lines 8 through 10. Line 11 contains symbolic link syntax.

              Notice the dollar sign ($) syntax on line 7. This syntax directs the mkfs.xfs command to terminate
              the branch of the filesystem it is currently on and then continue from the directory specified  by
              the  next  line, in this case line 8.  It must be the last character on a line.  The colon on line
              12 introduces a comment; all characters up until the following newline  are  ignored.   Note  that
              this means you cannot have a file in a prototype file whose name contains a colon.  The $ on lines
              13 and 14 end the process, since no additional specifications follow.

              File specifications provide the following:

                * file mode
                * user ID
                * group ID
                * the file's beginning contents

              A 6-character string defines the mode for a file. The first character of this string  defines  the
              file  type. The character range for this first character is -bcdpl.  A file may be a regular file,
              a block special file, a character special file, directory files, named pipes (first-in, first  out
              files),  and symbolic links.  The second character of the mode string is used to specify setuserID
              mode, in which case it is u.  If setuserID mode is not specified, the second character is -.   The
              third  character of the mode string is used to specify the setgroupID mode, in which case it is g.
              If setgroupID mode is not specified, the third character is -.  The remaining  characters  of  the
              mode  string are a three digit octal number. This octal number defines the owner, group, and other
              read, write, and execute permissions for the file, respectively.  For  more  information  on  file
              permissions, see the chmod(1) command.

              Following  the mode character string are two decimal number tokens that specify the user and group
              IDs of the file's owner.

              In a regular file, the next token specifies the pathname from which the contents and size  of  the
              file  are  copied.   In  a block or character special file, the next token are two decimal numbers
              that specify the major and minor device numbers.  When a file is a symbolic link, the  next  token
              specifies the contents of the link.

              When  the  file  is a directory, the mkfs.xfs command creates the entries dot (.) and dot-dot (..)
              and then reads the list of names and file specifications in a recursive  manner  for  all  of  the
              entries  in  the  directory.  A  scan  of the protofile is always terminated with the dollar ( $ )
              token.

       -q     Quiet option. Normally mkfs.xfs prints the parameters of the filesystem to be constructed; the  -q
              flag suppresses this.

       -r realtime_section_options
       Section Name: [realtime]
              These  options  specify  the  location, size, and other parameters of the real-time section of the
              filesystem. The valid realtime_section_options are:

                   rtdev=device
                          This is used to specify the device which should contain the real-time section  of  the
                          filesystem.  The suboption value is the name of a block device.

                   extsize=value
                          This  is  used  to  specify  the  size  of  the blocks in the real-time section of the
                          filesystem. This value must be a multiple of the filesystem block  size.  The  minimum
                          allowed  size is the filesystem block size or 4 KiB (whichever is larger); the default
                          size is the stripe width for striped volumes or 64 KiB for  non-striped  volumes;  the
                          maximum allowed size is 1 GiB. The real-time extent size should be carefully chosen to
                          match the parameters of the physical media used.

                   size=value
                          This is used to specify the size of the real-time section.   This  suboption  is  only
                          needed  if  the  real-time section of the filesystem should occupy less space than the
                          size of the partition or logical volume containing the section.

                   noalign
                          This option disables stripe size detection, enforcing a realtime device with no stripe
                          geometry.

       -s sector_size_options
       Section Name: [sector]
              This option specifies the fundamental sector size of the filesystem.  The valid sector_size_option
              is:

                   size=value
                          The sector size is specified with a value in bytes.  The default  sector_size  is  512
                          bytes.  The  minimum  value for sector size is 512; the maximum is 32768 (32 KiB). The
                          sector_size must be a power of 2 size and cannot be made larger  than  the  filesystem
                          block size.

       -L label
              Set  the  filesystem  label.  XFS filesystem labels can be at most 12 characters long; if label is
              longer than 12 characters, mkfs.xfs will not proceed with creating the filesystem.  Refer  to  the
              mount(8) and xfs_admin(8) manual entries for additional information.

       -N     Causes the file system parameters to be printed out without really creating the file system.

       -K     Do not attempt to discard blocks at mkfs time.

       -V     Prints the version number and exits.

Configuration File Format

       The configuration file uses a basic INI format to specify sections and options within a section.  Section
       and option names are case sensitive.  Section names must not contain whitespace.  Options are  name-value
       pairs,  ended  by  the  first whitespace in the line.  Option names cannot contain whitespace.  Full line
       comments can be added by starting a line with a # symbol.  If values contain whitespace, then it must  be
       quoted.

       The  following  example  configuration  file  sets the block size to 4096 bytes, turns on reverse mapping
       btrees and sets the inode size to 2048 bytes.

       # Example mkfs.xfs configuration file

       [block]
       size=4k

       [metadata]
       rmapbt=1

       [inode]
       size=2048

SEE ALSO

       xfs(5), mkfs(8), mount(8), xfs_info(8), xfs_admin(8).

BUGS

       With a prototype file, it is not possible to specify hard links.

                                                                                                     mkfs.xfs(8)