mkltfs

How to use the IBM Spectrum® Archive mkltfs file system format utility to format media.

The LTFS mkltfs utility formats tape media for use with LTFS. When mkltfs runs on a scratch medium, it performs the following actions:
  • Destroys all data on the medium
  • Creates two partitions on the medium
  • Creates a Universally Unique Identifier for the medium
  • Writes empty index data in the LTFS format
The newly formatted medium is recognized by LTFS.

The uncompressed capacity of a formatted partition created by mkltfs on LTO 5 media is 1 425 GB (1 GB = 1 × 10^9 bytes) or 1 325.25 GiB (1 GiB = 1.07 GB), or 1 327 GB when the capacity is calculated using 1 GB = 10243 bytes. Refer to the topic Data storage values in the Related information section to learn more about how LTFS uses these units of measurement. Refer to the topic Supported tape drives and media in the Related information section for capacity information for other supported tape drives and media.

Note: The formatting operation could fail if the medium has already been formatted for LTFS. Once the formatting is requested, LTFS attempts to mount the target medium to obtain the medium condition. The medium is formatted if the mount command finds any of the following conditions:
  • The medium is not partitioned for LTFS
  • The medium has an invalid label
  • Labels in both partitions do not have the same value
  • The medium has not yet been formatted for LTFS
If none of these conditions are found, LTFS assumes the medium is already formatted so it is not formatted by default. Specify either the -f or --force option as an optional mkltfs parameter in order to command LTFS to format a medium forcibly regardless of the medium status. Refer to the topic Formatting media using the mktlfs command for more information.