[TriLUG] mkfs vs mke2fs

[Ryan Leathers]

Can someone explain to me the practical differences between mkfs and
mke2fs?

>From the man pages:
mkfs
DESCRIPTION
mkfs is used to build a Linux file system on a device, usually a hard
disk partition.  -t fstype Specifies  the  type  of file system to be
built.  If not specified, the default file system type (currently ext2)
is used.
              
mke2fs - create an ext2/3 filesystem
DESCRIPTION
mke2fs is used to create an ext2/ext3 filesystem (usually in a disk
partition)

I see that I can create ext3 file systems with either one of these.  So,
suppose I add a new array to my server.  I create some new type 83
partitions on this new array using fdisk.  Now i need to put a file
system on these new partitions.  I want it to be ext3.  Is there a
practical reason to use one of these two commands over the other?  

I see that there are a number of arguments available to mke2fs, which
while seemingly impressive by volume alone don't strike me as being
practical and useful for my example above.  Is there something there I
should really be paying closer attention to?  All of my googling turns
up examples of folks using mke2fs to create ext3 file systems but its
not obvious to me what benefit this brings if any over using mkfs.   

-- 
Ryan Leathers <ryan.leathers at globalknowledge.com>
Global Knowledge