Filesystems: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 11:39, 2 September 2025

This page documents the Alpine Linux supported filesystems needed for various storage media.

Overview

The following table lists the packages related to various filesystems available in Alpine Linux along with the command to format.

Tool	Filesystem	Formatting command	Brief Notes
btrfs-progs	Btrfs	mkfs.btrfs	combines copy-on-write and volume management
dosfstools	FAT12/FAT16/FAT32	mkfs.vfat	also used for EFI partition
e2fsprogs	ext2/ext3/ext4	mkfs.ext4	ext4 is current default in Linux
exfatprogs	exfat	mkfs.exfat	Commonly used on USB flash drives and SD cards
f2fs-tools	F2FS	mkfs.f2fs
hfsprogs	HFS/HFS+	mkfs.hfsplus	Apple/Mac products
jfsutils	JFS	mkfs.jfs
ntfs-3g-progs	NTFS	mkfs.ntfs	Full-featured, Microsoft/Windows FUSE driver
squashfs-tools	SquashFS	mksquashfs	compressed read-only file system
xfsprogs	XFS	mkfs.xfs

Filesystem tools

Different packages/programs are used to format different types of filesystems. The filesystem tools and the formatting commands are listed above.

Filesystem labels

Most of the commonly used filesystems store the volume label or filesystem label in their metadata/superblock.

Labels can be set during filesystem creation or at a later time. The below table lists the commands for both. The commands are non-destructive as long as the filesystem is Unmounted except for btrfs.

Filesystem	Tool	Filesystem creation	Existing filesystem	Mounted/Unmounted
Btrfs	btrfs-progs	mkfs.btrfs -L "label" /dev/sdXY	btrfs filesystem label /mount/point "newlabel"	Mounted
FAT32	dosfstools	mkfs.fat -n "LABEL" /dev/sdXY	fatlabel /dev/sdXY "NEWLABEL"	Unmounted
ext4	e2fsprogs-extra	mkfs.ext4 -L "label" /dev/sdXY	tune2fs -L "newlabel" /dev/sdXY	Unmounted
NTFS	ntfs-3g-progs	mkfs.ntfs -L "label" /dev/sdXY	ntfslabel /dev/sdXY "newlabel"	Unmounted
XFS	xfsprogs	mkfs.xfs -L "label" /dev/sdXY	xfs_admin -L "newlabel" /dev/sdXY	Unmounted

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-Documentation how to use the Alpine distro to format HD/Floppy/Other.
+This page documents the Alpine Linux supported filesystems needed for various storage media.
-= Install =
+== Overview ==
-Alpine has multiple storage media formatting packages available. Different packages/programs are used to format different types of filesystems.
-* {{Pkg|btrfs-progs}} - For BTRFS
-* {{Pkg|dosfstools}} - For FAT12/FAT16/FAT32
-* {{Pkg|e2fsprogs}} - For ext3/ext4
-* {{Pkg|f2fs-tools}} - For F2FS
-* {{Pkg|jfsutils}} - For JFS
-* {{Pkg|ntfs-3g}} - For NTFS (Note: ntfs-3g is a FUSE driver)
-* {{Pkg|xfsprogs}} - For XFS
-= Format =
+The following table lists the packages related to various filesystems available in Alpine Linux along with the '''command''' to format.
-Here are some examples on how to use the formatting tools:
+<onlyinclude>
+{| class="wikitable" align="center" style="width:100%; border:1px #0771a6 solid; background:#f9f9f9; text-align:left; border-collapse:collapse;"
+|-style="background:#333333; color:#ffffff; font-size: 1.2em; text-align:center;"
+|width="18%" | Tool
+|width="18%"| Filesystem
+|width="15%"|Formatting command
+|Brief Notes
+|-
+|{{Pkg|btrfs-progs}}||[[Btrfs]]||mkfs.btrfs|| combines copy-on-write and volume management
+|-
+|{{Pkg|dosfstools}} ||FAT12/FAT16/FAT32||mkfs.vfat||also used for [[UEFI|EFI]] partition
+|-
+|{{Pkg|e2fsprogs}} ||ext2/ext3/ext4||mkfs.ext4||ext4 is current default in Linux
+|-
+|{{Pkg|exfatprogs}} ||exfat||mkfs.exfat||Commonly used on USB flash drives and SD cards
+|-
+|{{Pkg|f2fs-tools}} ||[[F2FS]]||mkfs.f2fs||
+|-
+|{{Pkg|hfsprogs}} ||HFS/HFS+||mkfs.hfsplus||Apple/Mac products
+|-
+|{{Pkg|jfsutils}} ||JFS||mkfs.jfs||
+|-
+|{{Pkg|ntfs-3g-progs}} ||NTFS ||mkfs.ntfs||Full-featured, Microsoft/Windows FUSE driver
+|-
+|{{Pkg|squashfs-tools}} ||[[SquashFS]]||mksquashfs||compressed read-only file system
+|-
+|{{Pkg|xfsprogs}} ||XFS||mkfs.xfs||
+|}</onlyinclude>
-{{Note|'''/dev/sda1''' is used as a example}}
+== Filesystem tools ==
-=== dosfstools ===
+Different packages/programs are used to format different types of filesystems. The filesystem tools and the formatting commands are listed [[#Overview|above]].
-{{Cmd|mkfs.vfat /dev/sda1}}
-=== e2fsprogs ===
+== Filesystem labels ==
-{{Cmd|mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda1
-mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1
-mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1}}
-=== btrfs-progs ===
+Most of the commonly used filesystems store the '''volume label''' or '''filesystem label''' in their metadata/superblock.
-{{Cmd|mkfs.btrfs /dev/sda1}}
-= Partitions =
+Labels can be set during filesystem creation or at a later time. The below table lists the commands for both. The commands are non-destructive as long as the filesystem is '''Unmounted''' except for btrfs.
-If you need to change or make a partition table on a Hard Drive you want to format, you can use:
-=== fdisk ===
+{| class="wikitable" align="center" style="width:100%; border:1px #0771a6 solid; background:#f9f9f9; text-align:left; border-collapse:collapse;"
-{{Cmd|# fdisk /dev/sda}}
+|-style="background:#333333; color:#ffffff; font-size: 1.2em; text-align:center;"
+|width="8%" | Filesystem
+|width="18%"| Tool
+|width="25%"| Filesystem creation
+|width="35%"| Existing filesystem
+|Mounted/Unmounted
+|-
+|[[Btrfs]]||{{Pkg|btrfs-progs}}||mkfs.btrfs -L "label" /dev/sdXY||btrfs filesystem label /mount/point "newlabel"||Mounted
+|-
+|FAT32||{{Pkg|dosfstools}} ||mkfs.fat -n "LABEL" /dev/sdXY ||fatlabel /dev/sdXY "NEWLABEL"||Unmounted
+|-
+|ext4||{{Pkg|e2fsprogs-extra}} ||mkfs.ext4 -L "label" /dev/sdXY||tune2fs -L "newlabel" /dev/sdXY||Unmounted
+|-
+|NTFS ||{{Pkg|ntfs-3g-progs}} ||mkfs.ntfs -L "label" /dev/sdXY||ntfslabel /dev/sdXY "newlabel"||Unmounted
+|-
+|XFS||{{Pkg|xfsprogs}} ||mkfs.xfs -L "label" /dev/sdXY||xfs_admin -L "newlabel" /dev/sdXY||Unmounted
+|}
-=== cfdisk ===
+== See also ==
-{{Cmd|# cfdisk /dev/sda}}
+* [[Setting_up_disks_manually#Manual_partitioning|Manual partitioning]]
+* [https://www.nico.schottelius.org/blog/2024-10-10-how-to-enable-encrypted-swap-in-alpine-linux/ How to enable encrypted swap in Alpine Linux]
 [[Category:Storage]]
+[[Category:Installation]]
+[[Category:Filesystems]]