On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 12:06:55PM +0100, Lukas Czerner wrote: > We should wipe off all the signatures from the device prior the file > system creation. It is because because some file systems (btrfs) may > still have their signatures on the device which can be confusing for > userspace possibly resulting in the unmountable file system. > > This patch adds a function which uses libblkid library to wipe all the > signatures from the device. > > If user disables libblkid library or does not have it installed this new > feature will not be used. This case can be implemented separately. mkfs.xfs already zeros the first part of the block device regardless of whether it is using libblkid or not: .... /* amount (in bytes) we zero at the beginning and end of the device to * remove traces of other filesystems, raid superblocks, etc. */ #define WHACK_SIZE (128 * 1024) .... /* * Zero out the beginning of the device, to obliterate any old * filesystem signatures out there. This should take care of * swap (somewhere around the page size), jfs (32k), * ext[2,3] and reiserfs (64k) - and hopefully all else. */ mp->m_ddev_targ.dev = xi.ddev; mp->m_ddev_targ.bt_mount = mp; buf = libxfs_getbuf(mp->m_ddev_targ, 0, BTOBB(WHACK_SIZE)); memset(XFS_BUF_PTR(buf), 0, WHACK_SIZE); libxfs_writebuf(buf, LIBXFS_EXIT_ON_FAILURE); libxfs_purgebuf(buf); Isn't 128k of zeroing enough to kill existing filesystem signatures? If not how much is, and why can't we just change WHACK_SIZE to reflect the size that will kill those signatures that are further offset into the device? Cheers, Dave. -- Dave Chinner david@xxxxxxxxxxxxx _______________________________________________ xfs mailing list xfs@xxxxxxxxxxx http://oss.sgi.com/mailman/listinfo/xfs