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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | ENVIRONMENT | EXAMPLES | AUTHORS | SEE ALSO | REPORTING BUGS | AVAILABILITY |
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WIPEFS(8) System Administration WIPEFS(8)
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 partition devices as well
as a 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 offsets where 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. When performed on a
partitioned whole-disk device like /dev/sdX, it will erase
only the partition tables, not the content of the partitions.
-b, --backup[=dir]
Create a signature backup to the file
wipefs-<devname>-<offset>.bak in $HOME or the directory
specified as the optional argument. 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 an exclusive BSD lock for the device or file that is
operated upon. The optional argument mode can be yes (1), no
(0), or nonblock. If the mode argument is omitted, it defaults
to yes. This option overrides the environment variable
$LOCK_BLOCK_DEVICE. The default is to not use any lock at all,
but using a lock is recommended to avoid collisions with
systemd-udevd(8) or other tools.
-i, --noheadings
Do not print a header line.
-O, --output list
Specify which output columns to print. Use --help to get a
list of all supported columns.
-n, --no-act
Causes everything to be done except for the write(2) call.
-o, --offset offset
Specify the location (in bytes) of the signature which should
be erased from the device. The offset number may include a
"0x" prefix; then the number will be interpreted as a hex
value. It is possible to specify multiple -o options.
The offset argument may be followed by the multiplicative
suffixes KiB (=1024), MiB (=1024*1024), and so on for GiB,
TiB, PiB, EiB, ZiB and YiB (the "iB" is optional, e.g., "K"
has the same meaning as "KiB"), or the suffixes KB (=1000), MB
(=1000*1000), and so on for GB, TB, PB, EB, ZB and YB.
-p, --parsable
Print out in parsable instead of printable format. Encode all
potentially unsafe characters of a string to the corresponding
hex value prefixed by '\x'.
-q, --quiet
Suppress any messages after a successful signature wipe.
-t, --types list
Limit the set of printed or erased signatures. More than one
type may be specified in a comma-separated list. The list or
individual types can be prefixed with 'no' to specify the
types on which no action should be taken. For more details see
mount(8).
-h, --help
Display help text and exit.
-V, --version
Display version and exit.
LIBBLKID_DEBUG=all
enables libblkid(3) debug output.
LOCK_BLOCK_DEVICE=<mode>
use exclusive BSD lock. The mode is "1" or "0". See --lock for
more details.
wipefs /dev/sda*
Prints information about sda and all partitions on sda.
wipefs --all --backup /dev/sdb
Erases all signatures from the device /dev/sdb and creates a
signature backup file ~/wipefs-sdb-<offset>.bak for each
signature.
dd if=~/wipefs-sdb-0x00000438.bak of=/dev/sdb seek=$((0x00000438))
bs=1 conv=notrunc
Restores an ext2 signature from the backup file
~/wipefs-sdb-0x00000438.bak.
Karel Zak <[email protected]>
blkid(8), findfs(8)
For bug reports, use the issue tracker
<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/>. This page is
part of the util-linux (a random collection of Linux utilities)
project. Information about the project can be found at
⟨https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/⟩. If you have a
bug report for this manual page, send it to
[email protected]. This page was obtained from the
project's upstream Git repository
⟨git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/util-linux/util-linux.git⟩ on
2025-08-11. (At that time, the date of the most recent commit that
was found in the repository was 2025-08-05.) If you discover any
rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you
believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page,
or you have corrections or improvements to the information in this
COLOPHON (which is not part of the original manual page), send a
mail to [email protected]
util-linux 2.42-start-521-ec46 2025-08-09 WIPEFS(8)
Pages that refer to this page: systemd.mount(5), systemd.swap(5), blkid(8), btrfs-device(8), cfdisk(8), cryptsetup(8), fdisk(8), mkfs.btrfs(8), sfdisk(8)
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HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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