mkffs

Make a Flash (embedded) filesystem image (QNX)

Syntax:

mkffs [options] -o fname root_directory

Options:

-o fname

Write the output of mkffs to fname.

-b bsize

Specify the block size of the component blocks in the Flash device. This value is specified in bytes or kilobytes. The default value is 64K.

-c

Compress all files.

-m[anu]

Translate case for filenames:

a

always convert to lowercase

n

never convert to lowercase

u

convert uppercase-only filenames to lowercase

The default for QNX is -mn; for Windows NT, it's -mu.

-p

Select POSIX mode. In this mode, user IDs and group IDs are stored for the filename directories in the Flash device, in accordance with POSIX.

-r spare

Keep spare spare blocks for use during reclamation (default is 1, the maximum is 8). If you specify 0 spare blocks, the embedded filesystem is read-only.

---

There's no real advantage to having more than one spare block.

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-s fsize

If the resulting embedded filesystem image file is less than fsize, fill the rest of the image file with 0xFF characters and appropriate format to fill it to fsize bytes. This can be specified in bytes or kilobytes.

-q

Be quiet -- warnings aren't displayed.

-v

Be verbose.

Description:

The mkffs utility creates a Flash (that is, embedded) filesystem image in the specified fname, based on the files contained in the root_directory parameter. The optional bsize parameter is used to specify the block size of each erasable subdevice within the embedded filesystem.

Note that the directory structure created is of the entire specified directory and any subdirectory entries. The specified directory becomes the root of the created embedded filesystem.

When building an image with mkffs, symbolic links found in and below the root directory are ignored. These links and/or the files they refer to aren't included in the image. To include these files in the image, use a hard link or the file itself.

The -s fsize flag is used to fill the embedded filesystem image with 0xFFs and appropriate formatting information. If the embedded filesystem exceeds fsize, mkffs exits with an error.

Unless at least one spare block is specified (using the -r option), the filesystem won't be able to reclaim space in other blocks.

Examples:

To create an embedded filesystem image called flash_1, from the files contained in the directory /home/jwall/flash:

mkffs -o flash_1 /home/jwall/flash

To create an embedded filesystem image, as above, specifying that the erase block size on the device is 64K:

mkffs -b 64k -o flash_1 /home/jwall/flash

See also:

mkcis, mkipl, romqnx