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+.\" Copyright 2009 by Karel Zak. All Rights Reserved.
+.\" This file may be copied under the terms of the GNU Public License.
+.\"
+.TH WIPEFS 8 "December 2014" "util-linux" "System Administration"
+.SH NAME
+wipefs \- wipe a signature from a device
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+.B wipefs
+.RB [ options ]
+.IR device ...
+.sp
+.B wipefs
+.RB [ \-\-backup ]
+.B \-o
+.I offset
+.IR device ...
+.sp
+.B wipefs
+.RB [ \-\-backup ]
+.B \-a
+.IR device ...
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+.B wipefs
+can erase filesystem, raid or partition-table signatures (magic strings) from
+the specified
+.I device
+to make the signatures invisible for libblkid.
+.B 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
+.B \-\-output
+.I columns-list
+in environments where a stable output is required.
+
+.B 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 \fBwipefs \-a /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdc2 /dev/sdc\fR.
+
+Note that some filesystems and some partition tables store more magic strings on
+the device (e.g., FAT, ZFS, GPT). The
+.B wipefs
+command (since v2.31) lists all the offset where a magic strings have been
+detected.
+
+When option \fB\-a\fR is used, all magic strings that are visible for libblkid are
+erased. In this case the
+.B wipefs
+scans the device again after each modification (erase) until no magic string is found.
+
+Note that by default
+.B wipefs
+does not erase nested partition tables on non-whole disk devices.
+For this the option \fB\-\-force\fR is required.
+
+.SH OPTIONS
+.TP
+.BR \-a , " \-\-all"
+Erase all available signatures. The set of erased signatures can be
+restricted with the \fB\-t\fR option.
+.TP
+.BR \-b , " \-\-backup"
+Create a signature backup to the file $HOME/wipefs-<devname>-<offset>.bak.
+For more details see the \fBEXAMPLE\fR section.
+.TP
+.BR \-f , " \-\-force"
+Force erasure, even if the filesystem is mounted. This is required in
+order to erase a partition-table signature on a block device.
+.TP
+.BR \-h , " \-\-help"
+Display help text and exit.
+.TP
+.BR \-J , " \-\-json"
+Use JSON output format.
+.TP
+\fB\-\-lock\fR[=\fImode\fR]
+Use exclusive BSD lock for device or file it operates. The optional argument
+\fImode\fP can be \fByes\fR, \fBno\fR (or 1 and 0) or \fBnonblock\fR. If the \fImode\fR
+argument is omitted, it defaults to \fB"yes"\fR. This option overwrites
+environment variable \fB$LOCK_BLOCK_DEVICE\fR. The default is not to use any
+lock at all, but it's recommended to avoid collisions with udevd or other
+tools.
+.TP
+.BR \-i , " \-\-noheadings"
+Do not print a header line.
+.TP
+.BR \-O , " \-\-output " \fIlist\fP
+Specify which output columns to print. Use \-\-help to
+get a list of all supported columns.
+.TP
+.BR \-n , " \-\-no\-act"
+Causes everything to be done except for the write() call.
+.TP
+.BR \-o , " \-\-offset " \fIoffset\fP
+Specify the location (in bytes) of the signature which should be erased from the
+device. The \fIoffset\fR number may include a "0x" prefix; then the number will be
+interpreted as a hex value. It is possible to specify multiple \fB\-o\fR options.
+.sp
+The \fIoffset\fR 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.
+.TP
+.BR \-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'.
+.TP
+.BR \-q , " \-\-quiet"
+Suppress any messages after a successful signature wipe.
+.TP
+.BR \-t , " \-\-types " \fIlist\fP
+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).
+.TP
+.BR \-V , " \-\-version"
+Display version information and exit.
+.SH ENVIRONMENT
+.IP LIBBLKID_DEBUG=all
+enables libblkid debug output.
+.IP LOCK_BLOCK_DEVICE=<mode>
+use exclusive BSD lock. The mode is "1" or "0". See \fB\-\-lock\fR for more details.
+.SH EXAMPLE
+.TP
+.B wipefs /dev/sda*
+Prints information about sda and all partitions on sda.
+.TP
+.B 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.
+.TP
+.B 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.
+.SH AUTHORS
+Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com>
+.SH SEE ALSO
+.BR blkid (8),
+.BR findfs (8)
+.SH AVAILABILITY
+The wipefs command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
+https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.