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 .