labeling usb drives (xfs)

[Roby]

Ben Edwards wrote:

> On 02/06/07, Roby <electricalsciences at adelphia.net> wrote:
>> Ben Edwards wrote:
>>
>> > I have a number of external usb drives with xfs file systems on them.
>> > Is there a way of labeling then so they dont just show up as disk-1,
>> > disk-2...?
>> >
>> > Ben
>>
>> Perhaps like this:
>>
>> Create unique volume labels for each drive:
>>   sudo mkfs.xfs -L monday ...
>>   sudo mkfs.xfs -L tuesday ...
> 
> I tried this, does it have to be done when the volume is created.
> 
> When I do
> 
> mkfs.xfs -L data /dev/sdb1
> 
> I get
> 
> mkfs.xfs: /dev/sdb1 contains a mounted filesystem
> Usage: mkfs.xfs
> /* blocksize */         [-b log=n|size=num]
> /* data subvol */       [-d agcount=n,agsize=n,file,name=xxx,size=num,
>                             (sunit=value,swidth=value|su=num,sw=num),
>                             sectlog=n|sectsize=num,unwritten=0|1]
> /* inode size */        [-i log=n|perblock=n|size=num,maxpct=n,attr=0|1|2]
> /* log subvol */        [-l agnum=n,internal,size=num,logdev=xxx,version=n
>                             sunit=value|su=num,sectlog=n|sectsize=num]
> /* label */             [-L label (maximum 12 characters)]
> /* naming */            [-n log=n|size=num,version=n]
> /* prototype file */    [-p fname]
> /* quiet */             [-q]
> /* realtime subvol */   [-r extsize=num,size=num,rtdev=xxx]
> /* sectorsize */        [-s log=n|size=num]
> /* version */           [-V]
>                         devicename
> <devicename> is required unless -d name=xxx is given.
> <num> is xxx (bytes), xxxs (sectors), xxxb (fs blocks), xxxk (xxx KiB),
>       xxxm (xxx MiB), xxxg (xxx GiB), xxxt (xxx TiB) or xxxp (xxx PiB).
> <value> is xxx (512 byte blocks).
> 
> Ben
> 
>> Create matching entries in /etc/fstab:
>>   LABEL=monday   /media/monday   xfs ...
>>   LABEL=tuesday  /media/tuesday  xfs ...
>>
>> Create /media mountpoints:
>>   sudo mkdir /media/monday
>>   sudo mkdir /media/tuesday

Yes. mkfs wants to work on an unmounted partition ... and while
writing the label, formats too!  Maybe you can find an xfs tool 
that will write a label while leaving your data alone.  I use 
ext3 filesystems and tune2fs allows tuning without cleaning out 
my files.  There's probably something like that for xfs.