# mkfs.minix

## NAME



           mkfs.minix - make a Minix filesystem
    


## SYNOPSIS



           **mkfs.minix**[options] _device_ [_size-in-blocks_]
    


## DESCRIPTION



           **mkfs.minix** creates a Linux MINIX filesystem on a device (usually a
           disk partition).
    
           The _device_ is usually of the following form:
    
               /dev/hda[1-8] (IDE disk 1)
               /dev/hdb[1-8] (IDE disk 2)
               /dev/sda[1-8] (SCSI disk 1)
               /dev/sdb[1-8] (SCSI disk 2)
    
           The device may be a block device or an image file of one, but this
           is not enforced. Expect not much fun on a character device :-).
    
           The _size-in-blocks_ parameter is the desired size of the file
           system, in blocks. It is present only for backwards compatibility.
           If omitted the size will be determined automatically. Only block
           counts strictly greater than 10 and strictly less than 65536 are
           allowed.
    


## OPTIONS



           **-c** , **--check**
               Check the device for bad blocks before creating the
               filesystem. If any are found, the count is printed.
    
           **-n** , **--namelength** _length_
               Specify the maximum length of filenames. Currently, the only
               allowable values are 14 and 30 for file system versions 1 and
               2. Version 3 allows only value 60. The default is 30.
    
           **--lock**[**=**_mode_]
               Use an exclusive BSD lock for the device or file that is
               operated upon. The optional argument _mode_ can be **yes**(**1**), **no**
               (**0**), or **nonblock**. If the _mode_ argument is omitted, it defaults
               to **yes**. This option overrides the environment variable
               **$LOCK_BLOCK_DEVICE**. The default is to not use any lock at all,
               but using a lock is recommended to avoid collisions with
               systemd-udevd(8) or other tools.
    
           **-i** , **--inodes** _number_
               Specify the number of inodes for the filesystem.
    
           **-l** , **--badblocks** _filename_
               Read the list of bad blocks from _filename_. The file has one
               bad-block number per line. The count of bad blocks read is
               printed.
    
           **-1**
               Make a Minix version 1 filesystem. This is the default.
    
           **-2** , **-v**
               Make a Minix version 2 filesystem.
    
           **-3**
               Make a Minix version 3 filesystem.
    
           **-h** , **--help**
               Display help text and exit.
    
           **-V** , **--version**
               Display version and exit. The long option cannot be combined
               with other options.
    


## ENVIRONMENT



           LOCK_BLOCK_DEVICE=<mode>
               use exclusive BSD lock. The mode is "1" or "0". See **--lock** for
               more details.
    


## EXIT STATUS



           The exit status returned by **mkfs.minix** is one of the following:
    
           0
               No errors
    
           8
               Operational error
    
           16
               Usage or syntax error
    


## AVAILABILITY



           The **mkfs.minix** command is part of the util-linux package which can
           be downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
           <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>. This page is
           part of the _util-linux_ (a random collection of Linux utilities)
           project. Information about the project can be found at 
           ⟨https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/⟩. If you have a
           bug report for this manual page, send it to
           util-linux@vger.kernel.org. This page was obtained from the
           project's upstream Git repository
           ⟨git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/util-linux/util-linux.git⟩ on
           2025-08-11. (At that time, the date of the most recent commit that
           was found in the repository was 2025-08-05.) If you discover any
           rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you
           believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page,
           or you have corrections or improvements to the information in this
           COLOPHON (which is _not_ part of the original manual page), send a
           mail to man-pages@man7.org
    
    util-linux 2.42-start-521-ec46  2025-08-09                  _MKFS.MINIX_(8)
    


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