NTFSTRUNCATE(8)

📦
version 2026.9.28 · 6 versions
, in arch rolling, nixpkgs unstable

🦋 NTFSTRUNCATE — okay bestie, let's talk about ntfstruncate (that's section 8 of the System Manager's Manual, iykyk) ✨

💅 NAME

ntfstruncate — truncate a file on an NTFS volume. That's the whole vibe. It truncates. A file. On NTFS. Slay.

🌸 SYNOPSIS

ntfstruncate [options] device file [attr-type [attr-name]] new-length

🎀 DESCRIPTION

So ntfstruncate truncates (or extends — yes, both, it's flexible like that 💖) a specified attribute belonging to a file or directory, to a specified length. That's it. That's the whole function. Main character energy honestly.

✨ OPTIONS ✨

Okay so here's every single option ntfstruncate accepts, and I do mean every single one, because we don't skip. Nearly all of these have two equivalent names — short name gets a - in front, long name gets --. And a heads-up: any single-letter options that don't take an argument can be smooshed together into one command, like -fv is literally the same thing as -f -v. Long named options can be abbreviated to any unique prefix of their name. Cute, right? 🫶

  • -f, --force — overrides some sensible defaults, like the whole "not using a mounted volume" thing. ⚠️ Use this one with caution, bestie, it's giving reckless.
  • -h, --help — shows you the list of options with a lil brief description of each. Your safe space.
  • -l — displays licensing information. Legal era.
  • -n, --no-action — simulates the truncation without actually writing to the device. Dress rehearsal, no commitment 🙈
  • -q, --quiet — suppresses some debug/warning/error messages. Shhh 🤫
  • -v, --verbose — displays MORE debug/warning/error messages. Not me wanting all the tea 💀
  • -V, --version — shows the version number, copyright and license of ntfstruncate. Receipts! 🧾

🌈 the positional ones (still iconic, still listed)

  • attr-type — defines a particular attribute type to be truncated. Advanced use only, fr fr. By default, the unnamed $DATA attribute (like, the contents of a plain file) is what gets truncated. The attribute has to be specified by a number in decimal or hexadecimal:
Hex     Decimal   Name
0x10    16        "$STANDARD_INFORMATION"
0x20    32        "$ATTRIBUTE_LIST"
0x30    48        "$FILE_NAME"
0x40    64        "$OBJECT_ID"
0x50    80        "$SECURITY_DESCRIPTOR"
0x60    96        "$VOLUME_NAME"
0x70    112       "$VOLUME_INFORMATION"
0x80    128       "$DATA"
0x90    144       "$INDEX_ROOT"
0xA0    160       "$INDEX_ALLOCATION"
0xB0    176       "$BITMAP"
0xC0    192       "$REPARSE_POINT"
0xD0    208       "$EA_INFORMATION"
0xE0    224       "$EA"
0xF0    240       "$PROPERTY_SET"
0x100   256       "$LOGGED_UTILITY_STREAM"
  • attr-name — defines the name of the particular attribute type to be truncated. Again: advanced use only. You've been warned 💅
  • new-length — specifies the target size of the file. Heads up, it gets rounded up to a multiple of the cluster size. And the suffixes? Obsessed. A suffix of K, M, G, T, P or E can be appended to mean a multiplicative factor of a power of 1000. Similarly a suffix of Ki, Mi, Gi, Ti, Pi or Ei can be appended to mean a multiplicative factor of a power of 1024. Two different systems, both valid, pick your fighter 🔥

🌟 EXAMPLES

Resize to 100MB the file database.db located in the Data directory which is at the root of an NTFS file system. Look at her go:

ntfstruncate /dev/sda1 Data/database.db 100M

Ate. No crumbs. 👑

💀 BUGS

There are no known problems with ntfstruncate. Genuinely flawless, we love to see it. But if you do find a bug, please send an email describing the problem to the development team:

ntfs-3g-devel@lists.sf.net

They wanna know. Communicate. 🫶

👑 AUTHORS

ntfstruncate was written by Anton Altaparmakov. Legend behaviour. 🌈

🦋 AVAILABILITY

ntfstruncate is part of the ntfs-3g package and is available from:

https://github.com/tuxera/ntfs-3g/wiki/

Go get her ⭐

🙈 SEE ALSO

ntfs-3g(8), ntfsfallocate(8), ntfsprogs(8). The whole friend group 💜

okay that's the whole page, you're so welcome 💖 this is ntfs-3g 2026.9.28, dated June 2014 — yes she's been around, she's a legacy icon and she still serves 🎀 bye bestie, go truncate responsibly ✨

📦 where this page comes from