error scripting parted using the mkfs command

[Nathan Boettcher]

I have been trying to use parted to help automate the creation of a disk image 
that I can then write to a card/disk/etc.  I use sfdisk to partition the image 
due to parted's inability to update/create the partition table (or at least I 
can't figure out how to do it with parted)...part of which is the disk geometry 
that's needed.  Then I am trying to use parted to set up an ext2 filesystem on 
the first partition.  Here's an abbreviated example:

1) dd if=/dev/zero of=test.dd -> create an empty image that we can then 
partition and fill

2) sfdisk ... test.dd -> creates 2 partitions, both set to ext2

3) parted -s test.dd mkfs 1 ext2 -> an attempt to make an ext2 filesystem on 
partition 1


Problem is, parted throws the exception that it's going to destroy the data and 
aborts the operation rather than continuing due to the -s flag.  I have tried 
every way I can think of to throw a confirmation to parted so it will continue 
and create the filesystem, but it just won't do it.

Can someone tell me why it's failing and how I can get it to work?  I've been 
searching and hammering on this for 2 days already.  I am using parted 1.8.5 as 
it is the only one that will compile on the linux system I'm using.  If this 
issue is fixed in a later release, I can see about upgrading the dependencies.

Thanks,

-Nathan