Subject: Re: formatting an ext2fs partition ?
To: None <tech-install@netbsd.org>
From: der Mouse <mouse@Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
List: tech-install
Date: 02/25/2000 11:14:07
> does someone know if it's possible to format an ext2fs primary
> partition under NetBSD/i386 ?

Most disks can't format less than the whole drive, as far as I can tell
(floppies being the major exception; they are usually able to format
individual tracks).

You also essentially never need to reformat a drive these days.

If you mean "format" in the DOS-corrupted sense of "make a filesystem
on", what you need is a newfs_ext2fs, and AFAICT we don't ship one, so
the answer would be "no, at least not with stock tools".

> I checked packges related to linux (emulators/suse_*) but (of course
> ?) linux tool 'mkfs' is not supplied.

It probably would be comparatively little work to take the linux source
to newfs, mkfs, whatever they call it, and build it - especially under
Linux emulation.  But admittedly I've never tried it; I could be wrong.

					der Mouse

			       mouse@rodents.montreal.qc.ca
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