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MKFS.BTRFS(8)                    Btrfs Manual                    MKFS.BTRFS(8)

NAME
       mkfs.btrfs - create a btrfs filesystem

SYNOPSIS
       mkfs.btrfs [options] _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
       -b|--byte-count _size_
           Specify the size of the filesystem. If this option is not used,
           then mkfs.btrfs uses the entire device space for the filesystem.

       --csum _type_, --checksum _type_
           Specify the checksum algorithm. Default is crc32c. Valid values are
           crc32c, xxhash, sha256 or blake2. To mount such filesystem kernel
           must support the checksums as well. See CHECKSUM ALGORITHMS in
           btrfs(5).

       -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 details.

       -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 an SSD is
           detected, in which case 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. The 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 and a
           power of 2, but not larger than 64KiB (65536). Leafsize always
           equals nodesize and the options are aliases.

           Smaller node size increases fragmentation but leads to taller
           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. This does not affect discard/trim operation when
           the filesystem is mounted. Please see the mount option discard for
           that in btrfs(5).

       -r|--rootdir _rootdir_
           Populate the toplevel subvolume with files from rootdir. This does
           not require root permissions to write the new files or to mount the
           filesystem.

               Note
               This option may enlarge the image or file to ensure it's big
               enough to contain the files from rootdir. Since version 4.14.1
               the filesystem size is not minimized. Please see option
               --shrink if you need that functionality.

       --shrink
           Shrink the filesystem to its minimal size, only works with
           --rootdir option.

           If the destination is a regular file, this option will also
           truncate the file to the minimal size. Otherwise it will reduce the
           filesystem available space. Extra space will not be usable unless
           the filesystem is mounted and resized using btrfs filesystem
           resize.

               Note
               prior to version 4.14.1, the shrinking was done automatically.

       -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.

       -A|--alloc-start _offset_
           deprecated, will be removed (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.

SIZE UNITS
       The default unit is byte. All size parameters accept suffixes in the
       1024 base. The recognized suffixes are: k, m, g, t, p, 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.

       As of kernel 4.14, RAID5/6 is still considered experimental and
       shouldn't be employed for production use.

FILESYSTEM FEATURES
       Features that can be enabled during creation time. See also btrfs(5)
       section FILESYSTEM FEATURES.

       mixed-bg
           (kernel support since 2.6.37)

           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
           (kernel support since 3.9)

           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
           (kernel support since 3.14)

           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 interchangeably

           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                 | Space       |   Min/max   |
       |        +--------+--------+----------+ utilization |   devices   |
       |        |        |        |          |             |             |
       |        | Copies | Parity | Striping |             |             |
       +--------+--------+--------+----------+-------------+-------------+
       |        |        |        |          |             |             |
       |single  |   1    |        |          |        100% |    1/any    |
       +--------+--------+--------+----------+-------------+-------------+
       |        |        |        |          |             |             |
       |DUP     | 2 / 1  |        |          |         50% | 1/any ^(see |
       |        | device |        |          |             | note 1)     |
       +--------+--------+--------+----------+-------------+-------------+
       |        |        |        |          |             |             |
       |RAID0   |        |        |  1 to N  |        100% |    2/any    |
       +--------+--------+--------+----------+-------------+-------------+
       |        |        |        |          |             |             |
       |RAID1   |   2    |        |          |         50% |    2/any    |
       +--------+--------+--------+----------+-------------+-------------+
       |        |        |        |          |             |             |
       |RAID1C3 |   3    |        |          |         33% |    3/any    |
       +--------+--------+--------+----------+-------------+-------------+
       |        |        |        |          |             |             |
       |RAID1C4 |   4    |        |          |         25% |    4/any    |
       +--------+--------+--------+----------+-------------+-------------+
       |        |        |        |          |             |             |
       |RAID10  |   2    |        |  1 to N  |         50% |    4/any    |
       +--------+--------+--------+----------+-------------+-------------+
       |        |        |        |          |             |             |
       |RAID5   |   1    |   1    | 2 to N-1 |     (N-1)/N | 2/any ^(see |
       |        |        |        |          |             | note 2)     |
       +--------+--------+--------+----------+-------------+-------------+
       |        |        |        |          |             |             |
       |RAID6   |   1    |   2    | 3 to N-2 |     (N-2)/N | 3/any ^(see |
       |        |        |        |          |             | note 3)     |
       +--------+--------+--------+----------+-------------+-------------+

           Warning
           It's not recommended to create filesystems with RAID0/1/10/5/6
           profiles on partitions from the same device. Neither redundancy nor
           performance will be improved.

       Note 1: DUP may exist on more than 1 device if it starts on a single
       device and another one is added. Since version 4.5.1, mkfs.btrfs will
       let you create DUP on multiple devices without restrictions.

       Note 2: It's not recommended to use 2 devices with RAID5. In that case,
       parity stripe will contain the same data as the data stripe, making
       RAID5 degraded to RAID1 with more overhead.

       Note 3: It's also not recommended to use 3 devices with RAID6, unless
       you want to get effectively 3 copies in a RAID1-like manner (but not
       exactly that).

       Note 4: Since kernel 5.5 it's possible to use RAID1C3 as replacement
       for RAID6, higher space cost but reliable.

   PROFILE LAYOUT
       For the following examples, assume devices numbered by 1, 2, 3 and 4,
       data or metadata blocks A, B, C, D, with possible stripes eg. A1, A2
       that would be logically A, etc. For parity profiles PA and QA are
       parity and syndrom, associated with the given stripe. The simple
       layouts single or DUP are left out. Actual physical block placement on
       devices depends on current state of the free/allocated space and may
       appear random. All devices are assumed to be present at the time of the
       blocks would have been written.

       RAID1

       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |device 1 | device 2 | device 3 | device 4 |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |         |          |          |          |
       |   A     |    D     |          |          |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |         |          |          |          |
       |   B     |          |          |    C     |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |         |          |          |          |
       |   C     |          |          |          |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |         |          |          |          |
       |   D     |    A     |    B     |          |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+

       RAID1C3

       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |device 1 | device 2 | device 3 | device 4 |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |         |          |          |          |
       |   A     |    A     |    D     |          |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |         |          |          |          |
       |   B     |          |    B     |          |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |         |          |          |          |
       |   C     |          |    A     |    C     |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |         |          |          |          |
       |   D     |    D     |    C     |    B     |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+

       RAID0

       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |device 1 | device 2 | device 3 | device 4 |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |         |          |          |          |
       |   A2    |    C3    |    A3    |    C2    |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |         |          |          |          |
       |   B1    |    A1    |    D2    |    B3    |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |         |          |          |          |
       |   C1    |    D3    |    B4    |    D1    |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |         |          |          |          |
       |   D4    |    B2    |    C4    |    A4    |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+

       RAID5

       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |device 1 | device 2 | device 3 | device 4 |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |         |          |          |          |
       |   A2    |    C3    |    A3    |    C2    |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |         |          |          |          |
       |   B1    |    A1    |    D2    |    B3    |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |         |          |          |          |
       |   C1    |    D3    |    PB    |    D1    |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |         |          |          |          |
       |   PD    |    B2    |    PC    |    PA    |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+

       RAID6

       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |device 1 | device 2 | device 3 | device 4 |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |         |          |          |          |
       |   A2    |    QC    |    QA    |    C2    |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |         |          |          |          |
       |   B1    |    A1    |    D2    |    QB    |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |         |          |          |          |
       |   C1    |    QD    |    PB    |    D1    |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+
       |         |          |          |          |
       |   PD    |    B2    |    PC    |    PA    |
       +---------+----------+----------+----------+

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
       redundancy and just wastes filesystem space without providing the
       expected level of redundancy.

       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.
       For example we could expect that not all blocks get deduplicated. This
       will provide a non-zero probability of recovery compared to a zero
       chance if the single profile is used. The user should make the tradeoff
       decision. The deduplication in SSDs is thought to be widely available
       so the reason behind the mkfs default is to not give a false sense of
       redundancy.

       As another example, the widely used USB flash or SD cards use a
       translation layer between the logical and physical view of the device.
       The data lifetime may be affected by frequent plugging. The memory
       cells could get damaged, hopefully not destroying both copies of
       particular data in case of DUP.

       The wear levelling techniques can also lead to reduced redundancy, even
       if the device does not do any deduplication. The controllers may put
       data written in a short timespan into the same physical storage unit
       (cell, block etc). In case this unit dies, both copies are lost. BTRFS
       does not add any artificial delay between metadata writes.

       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(5), btrfs(8), wipefs(8)

Btrfs v5.4.1                      01/09/2020                     MKFS.BTRFS(8)

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | SIZE UNITS | MULTIPLE DEVICES | FILESYSTEM FEATURES | BLOCK GROUPS, CHUNKS, RAID | PROFILES | DUP PROFILES ON A SINGLE DEVICE | KNOWN ISSUES | AVAILABILITY | SEE ALSO