Re: Problems with mkfs.xfs

[Eric Sandeen <sandeen@sgi.com>]

Detlef Vollmann wrote:

> Minor problem: syntax
> mkfs.xfs does not conform to the mkfs syntax (at least not to
> the one described in mkfs(8) on Linux and which I know since
> more than 15 years now :-}
>   mkfs -t xfs /dev/xxx 1234
> produces just an error message on the size parameter :-(

Part of the problem here is that "mkfs" is really just a wrapper for the
actual "mkfs.foo" for each filesystem "foo"... the mkfs man page was
probably written before there were any filesystems that had the concept
of a log.  So when the filesystem has 2 or even 3 things that can get a
size, (data, log, realtime...) simply placing a number of blocks at the
end is ambiguous.
 
> Bigger problem: semantics
> In the native mkfs.xfs option list, I found nothing that resembles
> the size parameter of the original mkfs command.  I had to do
> some computations and give size parameters for the different
> parts (data and logging).

mkfs.xfs will do sane things if you don't specify any sizes - it will
default to an internal log, with some decent value for the size of the
log.  What computations did you need to do?

> Real problem: size itself
> I tried to create an xfs filesystem on a 4MB ramdisk (/dev/ram0),
> but I found no combination of option that succeeded.
> Did I not try hard enouh or is the lower limit for xfs size
> larger than 4MB?

Not sure about this one, perhaps the Australians are more awake than I
am and can speak to this.  :)

-Eric

-- 
Eric Sandeen      XFS for Linux     http://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs
sandeen@sgi.com   SGI, Inc.