The mkfs Command

The mkfs Command

During a miniroot installation, you can use the mkfs command to create an EFS or XFS filesystem. If you enter mkfs without arguments, the root filesystem (/), and the user filesystem (/usr) if it is present, are erased and recreated. After your entry, you are prompted to choose the filesystem type; if you choose an XFS filesystem, the block size for the new filesystem is set to 4096 bytes per block.

Caution: This command erases the entire contents of these filesystems, so do not use it if the target filesystem contains information that must be preserved. Recreating the root filesystem (and /usr, if it is present) has these effects on an installation:

All local information in configuration files is lost.
All information in the installation history database is lost.
If you are using a remote installation server, you are required to enter the server's IP address when specifying the distribution source.

When you use this command to make filesystems other than root (/) and /usr, you must specify the device special filename where the filesystem resides. For example, this command creates a filesystem on partition 0 of SCSI disk 2:

Admin> mkfs /dev/dsk/dks0d2s0

If you are creating an XFS filesystem, mkfs prompts you to choose the blocksize (512 or 4096) for the new filesystem. (See the mkfs(1M) and intro(7M) reference pages for more information on specifying devices.; see ''IRIX Admin: Disks and Filesystems'' for detailed information on creating filesystems.)

To access the newly created filesystem, device, create a directory mount point and mount the filesystem:

Admin> shroot 
# mkdir mount_directory 
# exit 
Admin> mount device mount_directory