<s>
In	O
computer	B-General_Concept
operating	I-General_Concept
systems	I-General_Concept
,	O
mkfs	B-Device
is	O
a	O
command	B-Application
used	O
to	O
format	B-Application
a	O
block	B-General_Concept
storage	I-General_Concept
device	I-General_Concept
with	O
a	O
specific	O
file	B-Application
system	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
command	B-Application
is	O
part	O
of	O
Unix	B-Application
and	O
Unix-like	B-Operating_System
operating	I-Operating_System
systems	I-Operating_System
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
Unix	B-Application
,	O
a	O
block	B-General_Concept
storage	I-General_Concept
device	I-General_Concept
must	O
be	O
formatted	O
with	O
a	O
file	B-Application
system	I-Application
before	O
it	O
can	O
be	O
mounted	B-Application
and	O
accessed	O
through	O
the	O
operating	B-General_Concept
system	I-General_Concept
's	O
filesystem	B-Application
hierarchy	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
command	B-Application
was	O
originally	O
implemented	O
in	O
the	O
first	O
version	O
of	O
Unix	B-Application
as	O
a	O
method	O
to	O
initialize	O
either	O
a	O
DECtape	O
(	O
using	O
the	O
"	O
t	O
"	O
argument	O
)	O
or	O
an	O
RK03	B-Device
disk	O
pack	O
(	O
using	O
the	O
"	O
r	O
"	O
argument	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
initialization	O
process	O
would	O
write	O
formatting	O
data	O
to	O
the	O
device	O
so	O
that	O
it	O
contained	O
an	O
empty	O
file	B-Application
system	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
RK03	B-Device
disk	O
packs	O
had	O
4872	O
available	O
blocks	O
after	O
initialization	O
,	O
while	O
the	O
tapes	O
had	O
578	O
blocks	O
(	O
at	O
512	O
bytes/block	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
mkfs	B-Device
executable	O
was	O
kept	O
in	O
the	O
/etc	O
directory	O
instead	O
of	O
a	O
binary	O
directory	O
so	O
it	O
would	O
not	O
be	O
inadvertently	O
called	O
and	O
destroy	O
information	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Later	O
implementations	O
of	O
Unix-like	B-Operating_System
operating	I-Operating_System
systems	I-Operating_System
included	O
the	O
mkfs	B-Device
command	B-Application
,	O
including	O
HP-UX	B-Application
,	O
Minix	B-Operating_System
,	O
SunOS	B-Operating_System
and	O
Linux	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
basic	O
syntax	O
of	O
the	O
command	B-Application
,	O
which	O
is	O
common	O
to	O
all	O
modern	O
implementations	O
,	O
is	O
:	O
</s>
<s>
where	O
'	O
fs	O
type	O
 '	O
is	O
the	O
type	O
of	O
the	O
filesystem	B-Application
and	O
'	O
device	O
 '	O
is	O
the	O
target	O
UNIX	B-Application
device	O
to	O
write	O
the	O
filesystem	B-Application
data	O
to	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Often	O
the	O
command	B-Application
is	O
simply	O
a	O
wrapper	O
for	O
another	O
command	B-Application
that	O
performs	O
the	O
formatting	O
for	O
a	O
specific	O
file	B-Application
system	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
would	O
call	O
the	O
command	B-Application
mke2fs	O
while	O
passing	O
along	O
the	O
appropriate	O
arguments	O
to	O
format	B-Application
the	O
device	O
/dev/sda1	O
with	O
the	O
ext3	O
filesystem	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
default	O
options	O
for	O
the	O
command	B-Application
are	O
stored	O
in	O
the	O
file	O
mke2fs.conf	O
,	O
usually	O
in	O
the	O
/etc	O
directory	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Depending	O
on	O
the	O
implementation	O
and	O
the	O
specific	O
file	B-Application
system	I-Application
requested	O
,	O
the	O
command	B-Application
may	O
have	O
many	O
options	O
that	O
can	O
be	O
specified	O
such	O
as	O
inode	O
size	O
,	O
block	B-General_Concept
size	I-General_Concept
,	O
volume	O
label	O
,	O
and	O
other	O
features	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
filesystem-specific	O
commands	O
that	O
mkfs	B-Device
calls	O
may	O
be	O
invoked	O
directly	O
by	O
the	O
user	O
from	O
the	O
command	B-Application
line	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
Linux	B-Application
,	O
the	O
convention	O
has	O
been	O
to	O
name	O
the	O
filesystem-specific	O
commands	O
as	O
:	O
mkfs.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx1	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Where	O
<fs-type>	O
is	O
an	O
abbreviation	O
for	O
the	O
file	B-Application
system	I-Application
,	O
e.g.	O
,	O
mkfs.ext2	O
,	O
mkfs.msdos	O
,	O
mkfs.minix	O
,	O
etc	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
File	B-Application
systems	I-Application
supported	O
by	O
the	O
command	B-Application
vary	O
by	O
implementation	O
and	O
include	O
:	O
MSDOS	O
,	O
SCO	O
bfs	O
,	O
CPM	O
,	O
ext2	O
,	O
ext3	O
,	O
ext4	O
,	O
minix	B-Operating_System
,	O
fat	O
(	O
vfat	O
)	O
,	O
HFS	O
,	O
VXFS	O
,	O
RF	O
disk	O
,	O
RK	O
disk	O
,	O
DECtape	O
,	O
and	O
NTFS	O
.	O
</s>
