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 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
-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.