The wipefs command is a utility that is used to wipe disk signatures from disk devices on Linux. A disk signature, also known as a disk identifier or disk UUID, is a unique identifier that is assigned to a disk device when it is formatted. The disk signature is used to identify the disk device and distinguish it from other disks on the system.
To wipe a signature from a disk device with the wipefs command, you need to specify the device file for the disk that you want to wipe the signature from. For example:
wipefs -a /dev/sda
This will wipe the signature from the disk device represented by the /dev/sda device file. The -a option tells wipefs to wipe all signatures from the device.
You can also use the -o option to specify the offset of the signature that you want to wipe. For example:
wipefs -o 2048 /dev/sda
This will wipe the signature at the 2048-byte offset on the /dev/sda device.
It's important to note that wiping a disk signature does not erase the data on the disk. It simply removes the identifier that is used to identify the disk device. To erase the data on the disk, you will need to use a separate tool, such as dd or shred.
For more options and usage examples, you can refer to the wipefs man page by typing man wipefs at the command prompt.