= File Systems =

'''File systems''' are protocols for the organization of data. Compared to commercial operating systems, Linux is compatible with a large number of file systems.

See [[Linux/PartitionTables|here]] for creating a partition table.

<<TableOfContents>>

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== Setup ==

Devices are referenced as `sdXN`, where `X` is the relevant interface letter and `N` is the relevant partition number.



=== ext2 and ext3 ===

Don't.



=== ext4 ===

Run as superuser:

{{{
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdXN
}}}

Consider disabling access time on secondary and storage drives. Setting this metadata isn't always helpful and carries a speed cost.

{{{
# <device>                                <dir> <type> <options>        <dump> <fsck>
/dev/sdXN                                 /var  ext4   defaults,noatime 0      0
}}}



=== FAT32 ===

The main advantage to FAT32 is it near-universal mount-ability. (Expect issues on a vanilla macOS environment!) The cost is performance, instability, and incompatibility with standard Linux file metadata.

Run as superuser:

{{{
mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/sdXN
# or
mkfs.vfat /dev/sdXN
}}}



=== MS-DOS ===

Run as superuser:

{{{
mkdosfs /dev/sdXN
}}}

But you should also know that `mkdosfs` is a symlink to `mkfs.vfat`.

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== Usage ==

A file system is used by mounting it as a disk.



=== mount ===

To manually mount a volume, try:

{{{
mount /dev/sdXN /mnt/DIR
}}}

You may need to specify the file system type, using the `--types FSTYPE` option.

If you run into persistent errors, try `fsck /dev/sdXN` to check for file system errors.



=== udisksctl ===

'''udisksctl''' wraps the `udisks` utility to aids in mounting devices.

Run `udisksctl status` to see an overview of all devices. A volume can be mounted or unmounted using `udiscksctl mount -b /dev/sdXN` and `udiscksctl unmount -b /dev/sdXN`,



=== fstab ===

See the [[Linux/FsTab|fstab(5)]] file.



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