You need the partition /dev/sdc1 on a USB stick to carry a FAT32 filesystem so that Windows machines can read and write it. Which command creates it?
LPIC-1 Exam 101-500, objective 104. Devices, Linux filesystems, filesystem hierarchy standard medium
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The options
Not correct mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdc1
Wrong. ext4 is a Linux filesystem. Windows cannot mount it without third-party drivers.
Not correct mkfs.exfat /dev/sdc1
Wrong for this requirement. This creates exFAT, a different Microsoft filesystem. Modern Windows reads it, but it is not FAT32 and older devices often cannot mount it.
Correct mkfs.vfat -F 32 /dev/sdc1
Correct. mkfs.vfat (from dosfstools, also reachable as mkfs.fat) creates a FAT filesystem, and -F 32 forces the FAT32 variant rather than letting the tool choose FAT12 or FAT16 by size.
Not correct mkswap /dev/sdc1
Wrong. mkswap formats a partition as swap space for the kernel's paging, not as a mountable filesystem holding files.
Why
The mkfs family dispatches to a per-filesystem helper: mkfs.ext4, mkfs.xfs, mkfs.vfat, mkfs.exfat. `mkfs -t vfat` is the equivalent front-end form. For FAT, -F selects the FAT width (12, 16 or 32); without it the tool picks based on device size, which on a small stick may not be FAT32.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- LPI exam objective 104.1
- What it says
- Create filesystems of various types, including ext2/3/4, xfs and vfat.
Practise this
Reading one question is not practice. The trainer will draw a short set from objective 104 and space the ones you get wrong.
More questions on this objective
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All questions on Devices, Linux filesystems, filesystem hierarchy standard