Provided by: btrfs-tools_4.4-1ubuntu1.1_amd64 
NAME
mkfs.btrfs - create a btrfs filesystem
SYNOPSIS
mkfs.btrfs [-A|--alloc-start <alloc-start>] [-b|--byte-count <byte-count>] [-d|--data
<data-profile>] [-m|--metadata <metadata profile>] [-M|--mixed] [-l|--leafsize <leafsize>]
[-n|--nodesize <nodesize>] [-s|--sectorsize <sectorsize>] [-L|--label <label>]
[-K|--nodiscard] [-r|--rootdir <rootdir>] [-O|--features <feature1>[,<feature2>...]]
[-U|--uuid <UUID>] [-f|--force] [-q|--quiet] [--help] [-V|--version] <device>
[<device>...]
DESCRIPTION
mkfs.btrfs is used to create the btrfs filesystem on a single or multiple devices.
<device> is typically a block device but can be a file-backed image as well. Multiple
devices are grouped by UUID of the filesystem.
Before mounting such filesystem, the kernel module must know all the devices either via
preceding execution of btrfs device scan or using the device mount option. See section
MULTIPLE DEVICES for more details.
OPTIONS
-A|--alloc-start <offset>
(An option to help debugging chunk allocator.) Specify the (physical) offset from the
start of the device at which allocations start. The default value is zero.
-b|--byte-count <size>
Specify the size of the filesystem. If this option is not used, mkfs.btrfs uses the
entire device space for the filesystem.
-d|--data <profile>
Specify the profile for the data block groups. Valid values are raid0, raid1, raid5,
raid6, raid10 or single or dup (case does not matter).
See DUP PROFILES ON A SINGLE DEVICE for more.
-m|--metadata <profile>
Specify the profile for the metadata block groups. Valid values are raid0, raid1,
raid5, raid6, raid10, single or dup, (case does not matter).
A single device filesystem will default to DUP, unless a SSD is detected. Then it will
default to single. The detection is based on the value of
/sys/block/DEV/queue/rotational, where DEV is the short name of the device.
Note that the rotational status can be arbitrarily set by the underlying block device
driver and may not reflect the true status (network block device, memory-backed SCSI
devices etc). Use the options --data/--metadata to avoid confusion.
See DUP PROFILES ON A SINGLE DEVICE for more details.
-M|--mixed
Normally the data and metadata block groups are isolated. The mixed mode will remove
the isolation and store both types in the same block group type. This helps to utilize
the free space regardless of the purpose and is suitable for small devices. The
separate allocation of block groups leads to a situation where the space is reserved
for the other block group type, is not available for allocation and can lead to ENOSPC
state.
The recommended size for the mixed mode is for filesystems less than 1GiB. The soft
recommendation is to use it for filesystems smaller than 5GiB. Thie mixed mode may
lead to degraded performance on larger filesystems, but is otherwise usable, even on
multiple devices.
The nodesize and sectorsize must be equal, and the block group types must match.
Note
versions up to 4.2.x forced the mixed mode for devices smaller than 1GiB. This has
been removed in 4.3+ as it caused some usability issues.
-l|--leafsize <size>
Alias for --nodesize. Deprecated.
-n|--nodesize <size>
Specify the nodesize, the tree block size in which btrfs stores metadata. The default
value is 16KiB (16384) or the page size, whichever is bigger. Must be a multiple of
the sectorsize, but not larger than 64KiB (65536). Leafsize always equals nodesize and
the options are aliases.
Smaller node size increases fragmentation but lead to higher b-trees which in turn
leads to lower locking contention. Higher node sizes give better packing and less
fragmentation at the cost of more expensive memory operations while updating the
metadata blocks.
Note
versions up to 3.11 set the nodesize to 4k.
-s|--sectorsize <size>
Specify the sectorsize, the minimum data block allocation unit.
The default value is the page size and is autodetected. If the sectorsize differs from
the page size, the created filesystem may not be mountable by the kernel. Therefore it
is not recommended to use this option unless you are going to mount it on a system
with the appropriate page size.
-L|--label <string>
Specify a label for the filesystem. The string should be less than 256 bytes and must
not contain newline characters.
-K|--nodiscard
Do not perform whole device TRIM operation on devices that are capable of that.
-r|--rootdir <rootdir>
Populate the toplevel subvolume with files from rootdir. This does not require root
permissions and does not mount the filesystem.
-O|--features <feature1>[,<feature2>...]
A list of filesystem features turned on at mkfs time. Not all features are supported
by old kernels. To disable a feature, prefix it with ^.
See section FILESYSTEM FEATURES for more details. To see all available features that
mkfs.btrfs supports run:
mkfs.btrfs -O list-all
-f|--force
Forcibly overwrite the block devices when an existing filesystem is detected. By
default, mkfs.btrfs will utilize libblkid to check for any known filesystem on the
devices. Alternatively you can use the wipefs utility to clear the devices.
-q|--quiet
Print only error or warning messages. Options --features or --help are unaffected.
-U|--uuid <UUID>
Create the filesystem with the given UUID. The UUID must not exist on any filesystem
currently present.
-V|--version
Print the mkfs.btrfs version and exit.
--help
Print help.
SIZE UNITS
The default unit is byte. All size parameters accept suffixes in the 1024 base. The
recognized suffixes are: k, m, g, t, e, both uppercase and lowercase.
MULTIPLE DEVICES
Before mounting a multiple device filesystem, the kernel module must know the association
of the block devices that are attached to the filesystem UUID.
There is typically no action needed from the user. On a system that utilizes a udev-like
daemon, any new block device is automatically registered. The rules call btrfs device
scan.
The same command can be used to trigger the device scanning if the btrfs kernel module is
reloaded (naturally all previous information about the device registration is lost).
Another possibility is to use the mount options device to specify the list of devices to
scan at the time of mount.
# mount -o device=/dev/sdb,device=/dev/sdc /dev/sda /mnt
Note
that this means only scanning, if the devices do not exist in the system, mount will
fail anyway. This can happen on systems without initramfs/initrd and root partition
created with RAID1/10/5/6 profiles. The mount action can happen before all block
devices are discovered. The waiting is usually done on the initramfs/initrd systems.
FILESYSTEM FEATURES
mixed-bg
mixed data and metadata block groups, also set by option --mixed
extref
(default since btrfs-progs 3.12, kernel support since 3.7)
increased hardlink limit per file in a directory to 65536, older kernels supported a
varying number of hardlinks depending on the sum of all file name sizes that can be
stored into one metadata block
raid56
extended format for RAID5/6, also enabled if raid5 or raid6 block groups are selected
skinny-metadata
(default since btrfs-progs 3.18, kernel support since 3.10)
reduced-size metadata for extent references, saves a few percent of metadata
no-holes
improved representation of file extents where holes are not explicitly stored as an
extent, saves a few percent of metadata if sparse files are used
BLOCK GROUPS, CHUNKS, RAID
The highlevel organizational units of a filesystem are block groups of three types: data,
metadata and system.
DATA
store data blocks and nothing else
METADATA
store internal metadata in b-trees, can store file data if they fit into the inline
limit
SYSTEM
store structures that describe the mapping between the physical devices and the linear
logical space representing the filesystem
Other terms commonly used:
block group, chunk
a logical range of space of a given profile, stores data, metadata or both; sometimes
the terms are used interchangably
A typical size of metadata block group is 256MiB (filesystem smaller than 50GiB) and
1GiB (larger than 50GiB), for data it’s 1GiB. The system block group size is a few
megabytes.
RAID
a block group profile type that utilizes RAID-like features on multiple devices:
striping, mirroring, parity
profile
when used in connection with block groups refers to the allocation strategy and
constraints, see the section PROFILES for more details
PROFILES
There are the following block group types available:
┌────────┬────────────────────────────────────┬─────────────────┐
│ │ │ │
│Profile │ Redundancy │ Min/max devices │
│ ├──────────────┬────────┬────────────┤ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ Copies │ Parity │ Striping │ │
├────────┼──────────────┼────────┼────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │
│single │ 1 │ │ │ 1/any │
├────────┼──────────────┼────────┼────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ DUP │ 2 / 1 device │ │ │ 1/1 (see note) │
├────────┼──────────────┼────────┼────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ RAID0 │ │ │ 1 to N │ 2/any │
├────────┼──────────────┼────────┼────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ RAID1 │ 2 │ │ │ 2/any │
├────────┼──────────────┼────────┼────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │
│RAID10 │ 2 │ │ 1 to N │ 4/any │
├────────┼──────────────┼────────┼────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ RAID5 │ 1 │ 1 │ 2 to N - 1 │ 2/any │
├────────┼──────────────┼────────┼────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ RAID6 │ 1 │ 2 │ 3 to N - 2 │ 3/any │
└────────┴──────────────┴────────┴────────────┴─────────────────┘
Note: DUP may exist on more than 1 device if it starts on a single device and another one
is added, but mkfs.btrfs will not let you create DUP on multiple devices.
DUP PROFILES ON A SINGLE DEVICE
The mkfs utility will let the user create a filesystem with profiles that write the
logical blocks to 2 physical locations. Whether there are really 2 physical copies highly
depends on the underlying device type.
For example, a SSD drive can remap the blocks internally to a single copy thus
deduplicating them. This negates the purpose of increased redunancy and just wastes space.
The duplicated data/metadata may still be useful to statistically improve the chances on a
device that might perform some internal optimizations. The actual details are not usually
disclosed by vendors. As another example, the widely used USB flash or SD cards use a
translation layer. The data lifetime may be affected by frequent plugging. The memory
cells could get damaged, hopefully not destroying both copies of particular data.
The traditional rotational hard drives usually fail at the sector level.
In any case, a device that starts to misbehave and repairs from the DUP copy should be
replaced! DUP is not backup.
KNOWN ISSUES
SMALL FILESYSTEMS AND LARGE NODESIZE
The combination of small filesystem size and large nodesize is not recommended in general
and can lead to various ENOSPC-related issues during mount time or runtime.
Since mixed block group creation is optional, we allow small filesystem instances with
differing values for sectorsize and nodesize to be created and could end up in the
following situation:
# mkfs.btrfs -f -n 65536 /dev/loop0
btrfs-progs v3.19-rc2-405-g976307c
See http://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org for more information.
Performing full device TRIM (512.00MiB) ...
Label: (null)
UUID: 49fab72e-0c8b-466b-a3ca-d1bfe56475f0
Node size: 65536
Sector size: 4096
Filesystem size: 512.00MiB
Block group profiles:
Data: single 8.00MiB
Metadata: DUP 40.00MiB
System: DUP 12.00MiB
SSD detected: no
Incompat features: extref, skinny-metadata
Number of devices: 1
Devices:
ID SIZE PATH
1 512.00MiB /dev/loop0
# mount /dev/loop0 /mnt/
mount: mount /dev/loop0 on /mnt failed: No space left on device
The ENOSPC occurs during the creation of the UUID tree. This is caused by large metadata
blocks and space reservation strategy that allocates more than can fit into the
filesystem.
AVAILABILITY
mkfs.btrfs is part of btrfs-progs. Please refer to the btrfs wiki
http://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org for further details.
SEE ALSO
btrfs(8), wipefs(8)