.. default-role:: literal


File system documentation
=========================

How to do low level operations on the file system

Create and mount a FAT32 partition
----------------------------------

Using fdisk, set the system id to b (W95 FAT32)

Download and install dosfstools_

Run (as root)::

    $ mkfs.vfat $yourpartition

In ``/etc/fstab``, use the following options::

    /dev/$yourdev /$mountpoint vfat rw,sohrtname=mixed,utf8 0 0

.. _dosfstools: http://www.daniel-baumann.ch/software/dosfstools/

How to resize a partition
-------------------------

First edit the partition table so that your partition has the size you want (i.e
delete other partitions around, and so on). Run this as root::

   $ fdisk $yourdev

Then use ``resize2fs`` to resize your partition (as root)::

   resize2fs /dev/sda7 [$size]

where ``$size`` is optionnal (normally grows the partition to its dimensions
given with ``fdisk``)

Use uuid to recognize your devices
----------------------------------

When a partition is created, a lot of different filesystems add a universally
unique identifier (UUID) to the volume. This can be used to recognize a disk
unambiguously. To get a partition's uuid::

    $ vol_id $devname

The uuid is given by the `ID_FS_UUID` line in the output.

On Arch Linux, `vol_id` can be found in `lib/initcpio/udev/vol_id`.

You can then add a line like this in your `fstab`::

    UUID=1234-5678-9101-abcde $mountpoint $fstype $opts 0 0

.. Somehow disappeared
.. The article named `What UUID can do for you`_ provides much more information.


.. .. _What UUID can do for you: http://www.linux.com/archive/feature/146951