mke2fs.conf man page on Knoppix

Man page or keyword search:  
man Server   3132 pages
apropos Keyword Search (all sections)
Output format
Knoppix logo
[printable version]

mke2fs.conf(5)							mke2fs.conf(5)

NAME
       mke2fs.conf - Configuration file for mke2fs

DESCRIPTION
       mke2fs.conf  is	the configuration file for mke2fs(8).  It controls the
       default parameters used by mke2fs(8) when it is creating ext2  or  ext3
       filesystems.

       The  mke2fs.conf	 file uses an INI-style format.	 Stanzas, or top-level
       sections, are delimited by square braces: [ ].	Within	each  section,
       each  line  defines  a  relation, which assigns tags to values, or to a
       subsection, which contains further relations or subsections.  An	 exam‐
       ple  of	the  INI-style	format used by this configuration file follows
       below:

	    [section1]
		 tag1 = value_a
		 tag1 = value_b
		 tag2 = value_c

	    [section 2]
		 tag3 = {
		      subtag1 = subtag_value_a
		      subtag1 = subtag_value_b
		      subtag2 = subtag_value_c
		 }
		 tag1 = value_d
		 tag2 = value_e
	    }

       Comments are delimited by a semicolon (';') or a hash  ('#')  character
       at  the beginning of the comment, and are terminated by the end of line
       character.

       Tags and values must be quoted using double quotes if they contain spa‐
       ces.   Within  a	 quoted string, the standard backslash interpretations
       apply: "\n" (for the newline character), "\t" (for the tab  character),
       "\b" (for the backspace character), and "\\" (for the backslash charac‐
       ter).

       Some relations expect a boolean value.  The parser is quite liberal  on
       recognizing  ``yes'',  '`y'', ``true'', ``t'', ``1'', ``on'', etc. as a
       boolean true value,  and	 ``no'',  ``n'',  ``false'',  ``nil'',	``0'',
       ``off'' as a boolean false value.

       The  following  stanzas are used in the mke2fs.conf file.  They will be
       described in more detail in future sections of this document.

       [defaults]
	      Contains relations which define the default parameters  used  by
	      mke2fs(8).   In  general,	 these defaults may be overridden by a
	      definition in the fs_types stanza, or by an command-line	option
	      provided by the user.

       [fs_types]
	      Contains relations which define defaults that should be used for
	      specific filesystem types.  The filesystem type can be specified
	      explicitly using the -T option to mke2fs(8).

THE [defaults] STANZA
       The following relations are defined in the [defaults] stanza.

       base_features
	      This  relation  specifies	 the  filesystems  features  which are
	      enabled in newly created filesystems.  It may be	overridden  by
	      the base_features relation found in the filesystem or usage type
	      subsection of the [fs_types] stanza.

       default_features
	      This relation specifies a set of features that should  be	 added
	      or removed to the features listed in the base_features relation.
	      It may be overridden by the filesystem-specific default_features
	      in the filesystem or usage type subsection of [fs_types], and by
	      the -O command-line option to mke2fs(8).

       enable_periodic_fsck
	      This boolean  relation  specifies	 whether  periodic  filesystem
	      checks  should be enforced at boot time.	If set to true, checks
	      will be forced every 180 days,  or  after	 a  random  number  of
	      mounts.	These  values  may  be changed later via the -i and -c
	      command-line options to tune2fs(8).

       force_undo
	      This boolean relation, if set to a value of true, forces	mke2fs
	      to  always  try  to  create  an undo file, even if the undo file
	      might be huge and	 it  might  extend  the	 time  to  create  the
	      filesystem image because the inode table isn't being initialized
	      lazily.

       fs_type
	      This relation specifies the default filesystem type if the  user
	      does  not	 specify  it  via  the	-t option, or if mke2fs is not
	      started using a program name of the form mkfs.fs-type.  If  both
	      the  user	 and  the  mke2fs.conf file does not specify a default
	      filesystem type, mke2fs will use a default  filesystem  type  of
	      ext3  if	a  journal was requested via a command-line option, or
	      ext2 if not.

       blocksize
	      This relation specifies the default blocksize if the  user  does
	      not specify a blocksize on the command line, and the filesystem-
	      type specific section of the configuration file does not specify
	      a blocksize.

       hash_alg
	      This  relation specifies the default hash algorithm used for the
	      new filesystems with hashed  b-tree  directories.	  Valid	 algo‐
	      rithms accepted are: legacy, half_md4, and tea.

       inode_ratio
	      This relation specifies the default inode ratio if the user does
	      not specify one on the command  line,  and  the  filesystem-type
	      specific	section	 of  the configuration file does not specify a
	      default inode ratio.

       inode_size
	      This relation specifies the default inode size if the user  does
	      not  specify  one	 on  the command line, and the filesystem-type
	      specific section of the configuration file does  not  specify  a
	      default inode size.

       reserved_ratio
	      This  relation  specifies	 the  default percentage of filesystem
	      blocks reserved for the super-user, if the user does not specify
	      one  on  the command line, and the filesystem-type specific sec‐
	      tion of the  configuration  file	does  not  specify  a  default
	      reserved ratio. This value can be a floating point number.

       undo_dir
	      This relation specifies the directory where the undo file should
	      be stored.  It can  be  overridden  via  the  E2FSPROGS_UNDO_DIR
	      environment  variable.   If the directory location is set to the
	      value none, mke2fs will not create an undo file.

THE [fs_types] STANZA
       Each tag in the [fs_types] stanza names a filesystem type or usage type
       which  can  be specified via the -t or -T options to mke2fs(8), respec‐
       tively.

       The mke2fs program constructs a list of fs_types by  concatenating  the
       filesystem type (i.e., ext2, ext3, etc.) with the usage type list.  For
       most configuration options, mke2fs will look for a  subsection  in  the
       [fs_types]  stanza  corresponding  with	each  entry in the constructed
       list, with later entries overriding earlier filesystem or usage	types.
       For example, consider the following mke2fs.conf fragment:

       [defaults]
	    base_features = sparse_super,filetype,resize_inode,dir_index
	    blocksize = 4096
	    inode_size = 256
	    inode_ratio = 16384

       [fs_types]
	    ext3 = {
		 features = has_journal
	    }
	    ext4 = {
		 features = extents,flex_bg
		 inode_size = 256
	    }
	    small = {
		 blocksize = 1024
		 inode_ratio = 4096
	    }
	    floppy = {
		 features = ^resize_inode
		 blocksize = 1024
		 inode_size = 128
	    }

       If mke2fs started with a program name of mke2fs.ext4, then the filesys‐
       tem type of ext4 will be used.  If the filesystem  is  smaller  than  3
       megabytes,  and	no  usage  type	 is  specified, then mke2fs will use a
       default usage type of floppy.  This results  in	an  fs_types  list  of
       "ext4,  floppy".	   Both	 the ext4 subsection and the floppy subsection
       define an inode_size relation, but  since  the  later  entries  in  the
       fs_types	 list  supersede earlier ones, the configuration parameter for
       fs_types.floppy.inode_size will be used, so the filesystem   will  have
       an inode size of 128.

       The  exception  to this resolution is the features tag, which is speci‐
       fies a set of changes to the features used by the filesystem, and which
       is  cumulative.	So in the above example, first the configuration rela‐
       tion defaults.base_features would enable an initial  feature  set  with
       the   sparse_super,  filetype,  resize_inode,  and  dir_index  features
       enabled.	  Then	configuration  relation	 fs_types.ext4.features	 would
       enable  the extents and flex_bg features, and finally the configuration
       relation fs_types.floppy.features would remove  the  resize_inode  fea‐
       ture,   resulting  in  a	 filesystem  feature  set  consisting  of  the
       sparse_super, filetype, resize_inode,  dir_index,  extents_and  flex_bg
       features.

       For  each  filesystem  type,  the  following  tags  may be used in that
       fs_type's subsection:

       base_features
	      This relation specifies the features which are initially enabled
	      for  this filesystem type.  Only one base_features will be used,
	      so if there are multiple entries in the fs_types list whose sub‐
	      sections	define	the base_features relation, only the last will
	      be used by mke2fs(8).

       features
	      This relation specifies a comma-separated list of features  edit
	      requests	which  modify  the  feature set used by the newly con‐
	      structed filesystem.  The syntax is the same as the -O  command-
	      line  option to mke2fs(8); that is, a feature can be prefixed by
	      a caret ('^') symbol to disable a named feature.	 Each  feature
	      relation	specified  in the fs_types list will be applied in the
	      order found in the fs_types list.

       default_features
	      This relation specifies set of features which should be  enabled
	      or  disabled after applying the features listed in the base_fea‐
	      tures and features relations.  It may be overridden  by  the  -O
	      command-line option to mke2fs(8).

       auto_64-bit_support
	      This  relation  is  a  boolean which specifies whether mke2fs(8)
	      should automatically add the 64bit  feature  if  the  number  of
	      blocks  for the file system requires this feature to be enabled.
	      The resize_inode feature is also automatically disabled since it
	      doesn't support 64-bit block numbers.

       default_mntopts
	      This relation specifies the set of mount options which should be
	      enabled by default.  These may be changed at a later  time  with
	      the -o command-line option to tune2fs(8).

       blocksize
	      This  relation  specifies the default blocksize if the user does
	      not specify a blocksize on the command line.

       lazy_itable_init
	      This boolean relation specifies whether the inode	 table	should
	      be  lazily  initialized.	 It  only has meaning if the uninit_bg
	      feature  is  enabled.   If  lazy_itable_init  is	true  and  the
	      uninit_bg	 feature  is  enabled,	the inode table will not fully
	      initialized by mke2fs(8).	 This speeds up filesystem initializa‐
	      tion noticeably, but it requires the kernel to finish initializ‐
	      ing the filesystem in the	 background  when  the	filesystem  is
	      first mounted.

       inode_ratio
	      This relation specifies the default inode ratio if the user does
	      not specify one on the command line.

       inode_size
	      This relation specifies the default inode size if the user  does
	      not specify one on the command line.

       reserved_ratio
	      This  relation  specifies	 the  default percentage of filesystem
	      blocks reserved for the super-user, if the user does not specify
	      one on the command line.

       hash_alg
	      This  relation specifies the default hash algorithm used for the
	      new filesystems with hashed  b-tree  directories.	  Valid	 algo‐
	      rithms accepted are: legacy, half_md4, and tea.

       flex_bg_size
	      This  relation specifies the number of block groups that will be
	      packed together to create one large virtual block	 group	on  an
	      ext4  filesystem.	  This improves meta-data locality and perfor‐
	      mance on meta-data heavy workloads.  The number of  groups  must
	      be  a  power  of	2  and	may  only  be specified if the flex_bg
	      filesystem feature is enabled.

       options
	      This relation specifies additional extended options which should
	      be  treated  by mke2fs(8) as if they were prepended to the argu‐
	      ment of the -E option.   This  can  be  used  to	configure  the
	      default  extended	 options used by mke2fs(8) on a per-filesystem
	      type basis.

       discard
	      This boolean relation specifies  whether	the  mke2fs(8)	should
	      attempt to discard device prior to filesystem creation.

       cluster_size
	      This relation specifies the default cluster size if the bigalloc
	      file system feature is enabled.  It can be overridden via the -C
	      command line option to mke2fs(8)

THE [devices] STANZA
       Each  tag  in the [devices] stanza names device name so that per-device
       defaults can be specified.

       fs_type
	      This relation specifies the default parameter for the -t option,
	      if this option isn't specified on the command line.

       usage_types
	      This relation specifies the default parameter for the -T option,
	      if this option isn't specified on the command line.

FILES
       /etc/mke2fs.conf
	      The configuration file for mke2fs(8).

SEE ALSO
       mke2fs(8)

E2fsprogs version 1.42.5	   July 2012			mke2fs.conf(5)
[top]

List of man pages available for Knoppix

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