Probably quite a simple answer, but here goes.

I'm trying to create quite a simple virtual disk image(using DD to create a temp file and then formatting it accordingly). I can't get mkreiserfs to do the format, but mke2fs does(see below for output of commands). Is there any way to force reiserfs to format my image?

J

# dd if=/dev/zero of=temp.img ibs=1k count=700000
# mkreiserfs temp.img

<-------------mkreiserfs, 2001------------->
reiserfsprogs 3.x.0j
mkreiserfs: temp.img is not a block special device.
# mke2fs temp.img
mke2fs 1.22, 22-Jun-2001 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
temp.img is not a block special device.
Proceed anyway? (y,n) y
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
87552 inodes, 175000 blocks
8750 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
6 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
14592 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
32768, 98304, 163840

Writing inode tables: done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

This filesystem will be automatically checked every 25 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first. Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.

I'm not sure if this is what you want, but a loopback device may be what you need. I got this info from the man losetup page.

dd if=/dev/zero of=/file bs=1k count=100

losetup /dev/loop0 /file

mkfs -t ext2 /dev/loop0 100

mount -t ext2 /dev/loop0 /mnt

...

umount /dev/loop0

losetup -d /dev/loop0

Just try to see if you can format it in Reiserfs instead of ext2.

You learn something new every day, I didn't know that losetup command existed. It worked!

J

I'm glad that it was what you were looking for.