wipefs - wipe a signature from a device
wipefs [options] device
...
wipefs [--backup]
-o offset device
...
wipefs [--backup]
-a device
...
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 any options, wipefs lists all
visible filesystems and the offsets of their basic signatures. The
default output is subject to change. So whenever possible, you should
avoid using default outputs in your scripts. Always explicitly define
expected columns by using --output
columns-list
in environments where a stable output is
required.
wipefs calls the BLKRRPART ioctl when it has erased a partition-table signature to inform the kernel about the change. The ioctl is called as the last step and when all specified signatures from all specified devices are already erased. This feature can be used to wipe content on partitions devices as well as partition table on a disk device, for example by wipefs -a /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdc2 /dev/sdc.
Note that some filesystems and some partition tables store more magic strings on the device (e.g., FAT, ZFS, GPT). The wipefs command (since v2.31) lists all the offset where a magic strings have been detected.
When option -a is used, all magic strings that are visible for libblkid(3) are erased. In this case the wipefs scans the device again after each modification (erase) until no magic string is found.
Note that by default wipefs does not erase nested partition tables on non-whole disk devices. For this the option --force is required.
-a, --all
Erase all available signatures. The set of erased signatures can be restricted with the -t option.
-b, --backup
Create a signature backup to the file
$HOME/wipefs-<devname>-<offset>.bak
. For more details see the EXAMPLE section.
-f, --force
Force erasure, even if the filesystem is mounted. This is required in order to erase a partition-table signature on a block device.
-J, --json
Use JSON output format.
--lock[=mode
]
Use exclusive BSD lock for device or file it operates. The optional argument
mode
can be yes, no (or 1 and 0) or nonblock. If themode
argument is omitted, it defaults to "yes". This option overwrites environment variable $LOCK_BLOCK_DEVICE. The default is not to use any lock at all, but it’s recommended to avoid collisions with udevd or other tools.
-i, --noheadings
Do not print a header line.
-O, --output list
Specify which output columns to print. Use --help to get a list of all supported columns.
-n, --no-act
Causes everything to be done except for the write(2) call.
-o, --offset offset
Specify the location (in bytes) of the signature which should be erased from the device. The
offset
number may include a "0x" prefix; then the number will be interpreted as a hex value. It is possible to specify multiple -o options.The
offset
argument may be followed by the multiplicative suffixes KiB (=1024), MiB (=1024*1024), and so on for GiB, TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB and YiB (the "iB" is optional, e.g., "K" has the same meaning as "KiB"), or the suffixes KB (=1000), MB (=1000*1000), and so on for GB, TB, PB, EB, ZB and YB.
-p, --parsable
Print out in parsable instead of printable format. Encode all potentially unsafe characters of a string to the corresponding hex value prefixed by \x.
-q, --quiet
Suppress any messages after a successful signature wipe.
-t, --types list
Limit the set of printed or erased signatures. More than one type may be specified in a comma-separated list. The list or individual types can be prefixed with no to specify the types on which no action should be taken. For more details see mount(8).
-h, --help
Display help text and exit.
-V, --version
Print version and exit.
LIBBLKID_DEBUG=all
enables libblkid(3) debug output.
LOCK_BLOCK_DEVICE=<mode>
use exclusive BSD lock. The mode is "1" or "0". See --lock for more details.
wipefs /dev/sda*
Prints information about sda and all partitions on sda.
wipefs --all --backup /dev/sdb
Erases all signatures from the device
/dev/sdb
and creates a signature backup file~/wipefs-sdb-<offset>.bak
for each signature.
dd if=~/wipefs-sdb-0x00000438.bak of=/dev/sdb seek=$((0x00000438)) bs=1 conv=notrunc
Restores an ext2 signature from the backup file
~/wipefs-sdb-0x00000438.bak
.
For bug reports, use the issue tracker at <https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues>.
The wipefs command is part of the util-linux package
which can be downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
<https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.