mkfs.btrfs

creates a Btrfs on one or more devices

TLDR

Create Btrfs filesystem on partition

$ sudo mkfs.btrfs /dev/sdXY

Create single-device filesystem

$ sudo mkfs.btrfs -m single -d single /dev/sdX

Create RAID1 filesystem on multiple devices

$ sudo mkfs.btrfs -m raid1 -d raid1 /dev/sdX /dev/sdY

Set filesystem label

$ sudo mkfs.btrfs -L "mylabel" /dev/sdX

Force creation (overwrite existing)

$ sudo mkfs.btrfs -f /dev/sdX

Create with specific node size

$ sudo mkfs.btrfs -n 32k /dev/sdX

SYNOPSIS

mkfs.btrfs [options] device [device...]

DESCRIPTION

mkfs.btrfs creates a Btrfs (B-tree filesystem) on one or more devices. Btrfs supports multiple device configurations, copy-on-write, snapshots, subvolumes, and various RAID levels.

PARAMETERS

-L, --label NAME

Set filesystem label (max 256 characters)

-f, --force

Force overwrite of existing filesystem

-m, --metadata PROFILE

Metadata profile (single, dup, raid0, raid1, raid10, raid5, raid6)

-d, --data PROFILE

Data profile (single, dup, raid0, raid1, raid10, raid5, raid6)

-n, --nodesize SIZE

Set node/leaf size (default 16KB)

-s, --sectorsize SIZE

Set sector size

-O, --features LIST

Enable or disable features

-r, --rootdir DIR

Copy contents of directory to filesystem root

-U, --uuid UUID

Specify filesystem UUID

--mixed

Mix data and metadata in same block groups (for small devices)

CAVEATS

Creating a filesystem destroys existing data. Default profile is raid1 for metadata and single for data when multiple devices are specified. RAID5/6 support is still considered experimental.

HISTORY

mkfs.btrfs is part of btrfs-progs, the Btrfs filesystem utilities. Btrfs was developed as a modern copy-on-write filesystem for Linux.