mkfs.ext4

The mkfs.ext4 command line tool is used to create an ext4 file system. It is commonly used in Linux distributions to format storage devices such as hard drives and USB drives.

To use mkfs.ext4, you need to specify the device or partition you want to format. For example, mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1 formats the partition /dev/sdb1 with the ext4 file system.

This tool offers various options to customize the formatting process. You can set the filesystem label using the -L option, specify the number of reserved blocks with -m, and even select the block size with -b.

The mkfs.ext4 command usually checks the device for errors and initializes the file system data structures. It also creates the required superblock, inode table, and block bitmap.

Once a file system is created with mkfs.ext4, you can mount it to a directory using the mount command and start using it to store files and directories.

It's important to note that formatting a storage device erases all data, so always make sure to backup any important files before using mkfs.ext4.