exFAT

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exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table), a Microsoft file system optimized for flash memory storage such as USB sticks, is available to Gentoo Linux systems through a FUSE module.

Installation

Kernel

Make sure support for Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE) is enabled in the kernel:

KERNEL Enable support for CONFIG_FUSE_FS

File systems  --->
   <*> FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) support

Emerge

Install the FUSE exfat package:

root #emerge --ask sys-fs/fuse-exfat

For filesystem creation and manipulation beyond that of the mount command it is necessary to install the sys-fs/exfat-utils package:

root #emerge --ask sys-fs/exfat-utils

Usage

Formatting

To create an exFAT file system, use mkfs.exfat (or the mkexfatfs command, which is synonymous):

root #mkfs.exfat

mkexfatfs 1.2.1
Usage: mkfs.exfat [-i volume-id] [-n label] [-p partition-first-sector] [-s sectors-per-cluster] [-V] <device>

For instance, to create it on a removable device present at /dev/sde1 while assigning "Flash" as the file system label:

root #mkfs.exfat -n Flash /dev/sde1

Mounting

The file system can then be mounted using the mount.exfat-fuse command:

root #mount.exfat-fuse

FUSE exfat 1.0.1
Usage: mount.exfat-fuse [-d] [-o options] [-v] <device> <dir>

For instance, to mount the file system created in the above example:

root #mount.exfat-fuse /dev/sde1 /mnt/flash

To unmount, simply use the umount command:

root #umount /mnt/flash

Integrity checking

To check the integrity of an exFAT filesystem, use fsck.exfat:

root #fsck.exfat /dev/sde1

See also

• FAT - The original File Allocation Table filesystem created by Microsoft.
• NTFS - New Technology Filesystem, also created by Microsoft.
• ext4 - The fourth revision of the extended filesystem.