NAME¶
wipefs - wipe a signature from a device
SYNOPSIS¶
wipefs [
-ahnpqtV] [
-o offset]
device...
DESCRIPTION¶
wipefs can erase filesystem, raid or partition-table signatures (magic
strings) from the specified
device to make the signatures invisible for
libblkid.
wipefs does not erase the filesystem itself nor any other data from the
device. When used without options
-a or
-o, it lists all visible
filesystems and the offsets of their basic signatures.
wipefs calls BLKRRPART ioctl when erase partition table to inform kernel
about the change.
Note that some filesystems or some partition tables store more magic strings on
the devices. The
wipefs command lists only the first offset where a
magic string has been detected. The device is not scanned for additional magic
strings for the same filesystem. It is possible that after
wipefs -o
offset the same filesystem or partition table will still be visible
by another magic string on another offset.
When used with option
-a, all magic strings that are visible for libblkid
are erased.
Note that by default
wipefs does not erase nested partition tables on
non-whole disk devices. The option --force is required.
OPTIONS¶
- -a, --all
- Erase all available signatures. The set of erased signatures can be
restricted with the -t list option.
- -b, --backup
- Create a signature backup to the file
$HOME/wipefs-<devname>-<offset>.bak. For more details see
EXAMPLES section.
- -f, --force
- Force erasure, even if the filesystem is mounted. This is required in
order to erase the partition table on a block device.
- -h, --help
- Display help text and exit.
- -n, --no-act
- Causes everything to be done except for the write() call.
- -o, --offset offset
- Specify the location (in bytes) of the signature which should be erased
from the device. The offset number may include a "0x"
prefix; then the number will be interpreted as a hex value. It is possible
to specify multiple -o options.
The offset argument may be followed by the multiplicative suffixes
KiB (=1024), MiB (=1024*1024), and so on for GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB and
YiB (the "iB" is optional, e.g. "K" has the same
meaning as "KiB"), or the suffixes KB (=1000), MB (=1000*1000),
and so on for GB, TB, PB, EB, ZB and YB.
- -p, --parsable
- Print out in parsable instead of printable format. Encode all potentially
unsafe characters of a string to the corresponding hex value prefixed by
'\x'.
- -q, --quiet
- Suppress output messages after successful signature wipe.
- -t, --types list
- Limit the set of printed or erased signatures. More than one type may be
specified in a comma-separated list. The list or individual types can be
prefixed with 'no' to specify the types on which no action should be
taken. For more details see mount(8).
- -V, --version
- Display version information and exit.
EXAMPLES¶
- wipefs --all --backup /dev/sdb
- Erases all signatures from the device /dev/sdb and creates a signature
backup file ~/wipefs-sdb-<offset>.bak for each signature.
- dd if=~/wipefs-sdb-0x00000438.bak of=/dev/sdb seek=$((0x00000438)) bs=1
conv=notrunc
- Restores ext2 signature from the backup file
~/wipefs-sdb-0x00000438.bak.
AUTHOR¶
Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com>
ENVIRONMENT¶
- Setting LIBBLKID_DEBUG=0xffff enables debug output.
SEE ALSO¶
blkid(8),
findfs(8)
AVAILABILITY¶
The wipefs command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.