xref: /freebsd/sys/contrib/openzfs/man/man8/zfs-program.8 (revision 3a8960711f4319f9b894ea2453c89065ee1b3a10)

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.\"
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.\" Copyright (c) 2016, 2019 by Delphix. All Rights Reserved.
.\" Copyright (c) 2019, 2020 by Christian Schwarz. All Rights Reserved.
.\" Copyright 2020 Joyent, Inc.
.\" Copyright (c) 2025, Rob Norris <robn@despairlabs.com>
.\"
.Dd June 5, 2025
.Dt ZFS-PROGRAM 8
.Os
.
.Sh NAME
.Nm zfs-program
.Nd execute ZFS channel programs
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm zfs
.Cm program
.Op Fl jn
.Op Fl t Ar instruction-limit
.Op Fl m Ar memory-limit
.Ar pool
.Ar script
.Op Ar script arguments
.
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The ZFS channel program interface allows ZFS administrative operations to be
run programmatically as a Lua script.
The entire script is executed atomically, with no other administrative
operations taking effect concurrently.
A library of ZFS calls is made available to channel program scripts.
Channel programs may only be run with root privileges.
.Pp
A modified version of the Lua 5.2 interpreter is used to run channel program
scripts.
The Lua 5.2 manual can be found at
.Lk http://www.lua.org/manual/5.2/
.Pp
The channel program given by
.Ar script
will be run on
.Ar pool ,
and any attempts to access or modify other pools will cause an error.
.
.Sh OPTIONS
.Bl -tag -width "-t"
.It Fl j , -json
Display channel program output in JSON format.
When this flag is specified and standard output is empty -
channel program encountered an error.
The details of such an error will be printed to standard error in plain text.
.It Fl n
Executes a read-only channel program, which runs faster.
The program cannot change on-disk state by calling functions from the
zfs.sync submodule.
The program can be used to gather information such as properties and
determining if changes would succeed (zfs.check.*).
Without this flag, all pending changes must be synced to disk before a
channel program can complete.
.It Fl t Ar instruction-limit
Limit the number of Lua instructions to execute.
If a channel program executes more than the specified number of instructions,
it will be stopped and an error will be returned.
The default limit is 10 million instructions, and it can be set to a maximum of
100 million instructions.
.It Fl m Ar memory-limit
Memory limit, in bytes.
If a channel program attempts to allocate more memory than the given limit, it
will be stopped and an error returned.
The default memory limit is 10 MiB, and can be set to a maximum of 100 MiB.
.El
.Pp
All remaining argument strings will be passed directly to the Lua script as
described in the
.Sx LUA INTERFACE
section below.
.
.Sh LUA INTERFACE
A channel program can be invoked either from the command line, or via a library
call to
.Fn lzc_channel_program .
.
.Ss Arguments
Arguments passed to the channel program are converted to a Lua table.
If invoked from the command line, extra arguments to the Lua script will be
accessible as an array stored in the argument table with the key 'argv':
.Bd -literal -compact -offset indent
args = ...
argv = args["argv"]
-- argv == {1="arg1", 2="arg2", ...}
.Ed
.Pp
If invoked from the libzfs interface, an arbitrary argument list can be
passed to the channel program, which is accessible via the same
.Qq Li ...
syntax in Lua:
.Bd -literal -compact -offset indent
args = ...
-- args == {"foo"="bar", "baz"={...}, ...}
.Ed
.Pp
Note that because Lua arrays are 1-indexed, arrays passed to Lua from the
libzfs interface will have their indices incremented by 1.
That is, the element
in
.Va arr[0]
in a C array passed to a channel program will be stored in
.Va arr[1]
when accessed from Lua.
.
.Ss Return Values
Lua return statements take the form:
.Dl return ret0, ret1, ret2, ...
.Pp
Return statements returning multiple values are permitted internally in a
channel program script, but attempting to return more than one value from the
top level of the channel program is not permitted and will throw an error.
However, tables containing multiple values can still be returned.
If invoked from the command line, a return statement:
.Bd -literal -compact -offset indent
a = {foo="bar", baz=2}
return a
.Ed
.Pp
Will be output formatted as:
.Bd -literal -compact -offset indent
Channel program fully executed with return value:
    return:
        baz: 2
        foo: 'bar'
.Ed
.
.Ss Fatal Errors
If the channel program encounters a fatal error while running, a non-zero exit
status will be returned.
If more information about the error is available, a singleton list will be
returned detailing the error:
.Dl error: \&"error string, including Lua stack trace"
.Pp
If a fatal error is returned, the channel program may have not executed at all,
may have partially executed, or may have fully executed but failed to pass a
return value back to userland.
.Pp
If the channel program exhausts an instruction or memory limit, a fatal error
will be generated and the program will be stopped, leaving the program partially
executed.
No attempt is made to reverse or undo any operations already performed.
Note that because both the instruction count and amount of memory used by a
channel program are deterministic when run against the same inputs and
filesystem state, as long as a channel program has run successfully once, you
can guarantee that it will finish successfully against a similar size system.
.Pp
If a channel program attempts to return too large a value, the program will
fully execute but exit with a nonzero status code and no return value.
.Pp
.Em Note :
ZFS API functions do not generate Fatal Errors when correctly invoked, they
return an error code and the channel program continues executing.
See the
.Sx ZFS API
section below for function-specific details on error return codes.
.
.Ss Lua to C Value Conversion
When invoking a channel program via the libzfs interface, it is necessary to
translate arguments and return values from Lua values to their C equivalents,
and vice-versa.
.Pp
There is a correspondence between nvlist values in C and Lua tables.
A Lua table which is returned from the channel program will be recursively
converted to an nvlist, with table values converted to their natural
equivalents:
.TS
cw3 l c l .
	string	->	string
	number	->	int64
	boolean	->	boolean_value
	nil	->	boolean (no value)
	table	->	nvlist
.TE
.Pp
Likewise, table keys are replaced by string equivalents as follows:
.TS
cw3 l c l .
	string	->	no change
	number	->	signed decimal string ("%lld")
	boolean	->	"true" | "false"
.TE
.Pp
Any collision of table key strings (for example, the string "true" and a
true boolean value) will cause a fatal error.
.Pp
Lua numbers are represented internally as signed 64-bit integers.
.
.Sh LUA STANDARD LIBRARY
The following Lua built-in base library functions are available:
.TS
cw3 l l l l .
	assert	rawlen	collectgarbage	rawget
	error	rawset	getmetatable	select
	ipairs	setmetatable	next	tonumber
	pairs	tostring	rawequal	type
.TE
.Pp
All functions in the
.Em coroutine ,
.Em string ,
and
.Em table
built-in submodules are also available.
A complete list and documentation of these modules is available in the Lua
manual.
.Pp
The following functions base library functions have been disabled and are
not available for use in channel programs:
.TS
cw3 l l l l l l .
	dofile	loadfile	load	pcall	print	xpcall
.TE
.
.Sh ZFS API
.
.Ss Function Arguments
Each API function takes a fixed set of required positional arguments and
optional keyword arguments.
For example, the destroy function takes a single positional string argument
(the name of the dataset to destroy) and an optional "defer" keyword boolean
argument.
When using parentheses to specify the arguments to a Lua function, only
positional arguments can be used:
.Dl Sy zfs.sync.destroy Ns Pq \&"rpool@snap"
.Pp
To use keyword arguments, functions must be called with a single argument that
is a Lua table containing entries mapping integers to positional arguments and
strings to keyword arguments:
.Dl Sy zfs.sync.destroy Ns Pq {1="rpool@snap", defer=true}
.Pp
The Lua language allows curly braces to be used in place of parenthesis as
syntactic sugar for this calling convention:
.Dl Sy zfs.sync.snapshot Ns {"rpool@snap", defer=true}
.
.Ss Function Return Values
If an API function succeeds, it returns 0.
If it fails, it returns an error code and the channel program continues
executing.
API functions do not generate Fatal Errors except in the case of an
unrecoverable internal file system error.
.Pp
In addition to returning an error code, some functions also return extra
details describing what caused the error.
This extra description is given as a second return value, and will always be a
Lua table, or Nil if no error details were returned.
Different keys will exist in the error details table depending on the function
and error case.
Any such function may be called expecting a single return value:
.Dl errno = Sy zfs.sync.promote Ns Pq dataset
.Pp
Or, the error details can be retrieved:
.Bd -literal -compact -offset indent
.No errno, details = Sy zfs.sync.promote Ns Pq dataset
if (errno == EEXIST) then
    assert(details ~= Nil)
    list_of_conflicting_snapshots = details
end
.Ed
.Pp
The following global aliases for API function error return codes are defined
for use in channel programs:
.TS
cw3 l l l l l l l .
	EPERM	ECHILD	ENODEV	ENOSPC	ENOENT	EAGAIN	ENOTDIR
	ESPIPE	ESRCH	ENOMEM	EISDIR	EROFS	EINTR	EACCES
	EINVAL	EMLINK	EIO	EFAULT	ENFILE	EPIPE	ENXIO
	ENOTBLK	EMFILE	EDOM	E2BIG	EBUSY	ENOTTY	ERANGE
	ENOEXEC	EEXIST	ETXTBSY	EDQUOT	EBADF	EXDEV	EFBIG
.TE
.
.Ss API Functions
For detailed descriptions of the exact behavior of any ZFS administrative
operations, see the main
.Xr zfs 8
manual page.
.Bl -tag -width "xx"
.It Fn zfs.debug msg
Record a debug message in the zfs_dbgmsg log.
A log of these messages can be printed via mdb's "::zfs_dbgmsg" command, or
can be monitored live by running
.Dl dtrace -n 'zfs-dbgmsg{trace(stringof(arg0))}'
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width "property (string)"
.It Ar msg Pq string
Debug message to be printed.
.El
.It Fn zfs.exists dataset
Returns true if the given dataset exists, or false if it doesn't.
A fatal error will be thrown if the dataset is not in the target pool.
That is, in a channel program running on rpool,
.Sy zfs.exists Ns Pq \&"rpool/nonexistent_fs"
returns false, but
.Sy zfs.exists Ns Pq \&"somepool/fs_that_may_exist"
will error.
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width "property (string)"
.It Ar dataset Pq string
Dataset to check for existence.
Must be in the target pool.
.El
.It Fn zfs.get_prop dataset property
Returns two values.
First, a string, number or table containing the property value for the given
dataset.
Second, a string containing the source of the property (i.e. the name of the
dataset in which it was set or nil if it is readonly).
Throws a Lua error if the dataset is invalid or the property doesn't exist.
Note that Lua only supports int64 number types whereas ZFS number properties
are uint64.
This means very large values (like GUIDs) may wrap around and appear negative.
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width "property (string)"
.It Ar dataset Pq string
Filesystem or snapshot path to retrieve properties from.
.It Ar property Pq string
Name of property to retrieve.
All filesystem, snapshot and volume properties are supported except for
.Sy mounted
and
.Sy iscsioptions .
Also supports the
.Sy written@ Ns Ar snap
and
.Sy written# Ns Ar bookmark
properties and the
.Ao Sy user Ns | Ns Sy group Ac Ns Ao Sy quota Ns | Ns Sy used Ac Ns Sy @ Ns Ar id
properties, though the id must be in numeric form.
.El
.El
.Bl -tag -width "xx"
.It Sy zfs.sync submodule
The sync submodule contains functions that modify the on-disk state.
They are executed in "syncing context".
.Pp
The available sync submodule functions are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width "xx"
.It Fn zfs.sync.clone snapshot newdataset
Create a new filesystem from a snapshot.
Returns 0 if the filesystem was successfully created,
and a nonzero error code otherwise.
.Pp
Note: Due to general limitations in channel programs, a filesystem created
this way will not be mounted, regardless of the value of the
.Sy mountpoint
and
.Sy canmount
properties.
This limitation may be removed in the future,
so it is recommended that you set
.Sy mountpoint Ns = Ns Sy none
or
.Sy canmount Ns = Ns Sy off
or
.Sy noauto
to avoid surprises.
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width "newbookmark (string)"
.It Ar snapshot Pq string
Name of the source snapshot to clone.
.It Ar newdataset Pq string
Name of the target dataset to create.
.El
.It Sy zfs.sync.destroy Ns Pq Ar dataset , Op Ar defer Ns = Ns Sy true Ns | Ns Sy false
Destroy the given dataset.
Returns 0 on successful destroy, or a nonzero error code if the dataset could
not be destroyed (for example, if the dataset has any active children or
clones).
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width "newbookmark (string)"
.It Ar dataset Pq string
Filesystem or snapshot to be destroyed.
.It Op Ar defer Pq boolean
Valid only for destroying snapshots.
If set to true, and the snapshot has holds or clones, allows the snapshot to be
marked for deferred deletion rather than failing.
.El
.It Fn zfs.sync.inherit dataset property
Clears the specified property in the given dataset, causing it to be inherited
from an ancestor, or restored to the default if no ancestor property is set.
The
.Nm zfs Cm inherit Fl S
option has not been implemented.
Returns 0 on success, or a nonzero error code if the property could not be
cleared.
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width "newbookmark (string)"
.It Ar dataset Pq string
Filesystem or snapshot containing the property to clear.
.It Ar property Pq string
The property to clear.
Allowed properties are the same as those for the
.Nm zfs Cm inherit
command.
.El
.It Fn zfs.sync.promote dataset
Promote the given clone to a filesystem.
Returns 0 on successful promotion, or a nonzero error code otherwise.
If EEXIST is returned, the second return value will be an array of the clone's
snapshots whose names collide with snapshots of the parent filesystem.
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width "newbookmark (string)"
.It Ar dataset Pq string
Clone to be promoted.
.El
.It Fn zfs.sync.rollback filesystem
Rollback to the previous snapshot for a dataset.
Returns 0 on successful rollback, or a nonzero error code otherwise.
Rollbacks can be performed on filesystems or zvols, but not on snapshots
or mounted datasets.
EBUSY is returned in the case where the filesystem is mounted.
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width "newbookmark (string)"
.It Ar filesystem Pq string
Filesystem to rollback.
.El
.It Fn zfs.sync.set_prop dataset property value
Sets the given property on a dataset.
Currently only user properties are supported.
Returns 0 if the property was set, or a nonzero error code otherwise.
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width "newbookmark (string)"
.It Ar dataset Pq string
The dataset where the property will be set.
.It Ar property Pq string
The property to set.
.It Ar value Pq string
The value of the property to be set.
.El
.It Fn zfs.sync.snapshot dataset
Create a snapshot of a filesystem.
Returns 0 if the snapshot was successfully created,
and a nonzero error code otherwise.
.Pp
Note: Taking a snapshot will fail on any pool older than legacy version 27.
To enable taking snapshots from ZCP scripts, the pool must be upgraded.
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width "newbookmark (string)"
.It Ar dataset Pq string
Name of snapshot to create.
.El
.It Fn zfs.sync.rename_snapshot dataset oldsnapname newsnapname
Rename a snapshot of a filesystem or a volume.
Returns 0 if the snapshot was successfully renamed,
and a nonzero error code otherwise.
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width "newbookmark (string)"
.It Ar dataset Pq string
Name of the snapshot's parent dataset.
.It Ar oldsnapname Pq string
Original name of the snapshot.
.It Ar newsnapname Pq string
New name of the snapshot.
.El
.It Fn zfs.sync.bookmark source newbookmark
Create a bookmark of an existing source snapshot or bookmark.
Returns 0 if the new bookmark was successfully created,
and a nonzero error code otherwise.
.Pp
Note: Bookmarking requires the corresponding pool feature to be enabled.
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width "newbookmark (string)"
.It Ar source Pq string
Full name of the existing snapshot or bookmark.
.It Ar newbookmark Pq string
Full name of the new bookmark.
.El
.El
.It Sy zfs.check submodule
For each function in the
.Sy zfs.sync
submodule, there is a corresponding
.Sy zfs.check
function which performs a "dry run" of the same operation.
Each takes the same arguments as its
.Sy zfs.sync
counterpart and returns 0 if the operation would succeed,
or a non-zero error code if it would fail, along with any other error details.
That is, each has the same behavior as the corresponding sync function except
for actually executing the requested change.
For example,
.Fn zfs.check.destroy \&"fs"
returns 0 if
.Fn zfs.sync.destroy \&"fs"
would successfully destroy the dataset.
.Pp
The available
.Sy zfs.check
functions are:
.Bl -tag -compact -width "xx"
.It Fn zfs.check.clone snapshot newdataset
.It Sy zfs.check.destroy Ns Pq Ar dataset , Op Ar defer Ns = Ns Sy true Ns | Ns Sy false
.It Fn zfs.check.promote dataset
.It Fn zfs.check.rollback filesystem
.It Fn zfs.check.set_property dataset property value
.It Fn zfs.check.snapshot dataset
.El
.It Sy zfs.list submodule
The zfs.list submodule provides functions for iterating over datasets and
properties.
Rather than returning tables, these functions act as Lua iterators, and are
generally used as follows:
.Bd -literal -compact -offset indent
.No for child in Fn zfs.list.children \&"rpool" No do
    ...
end
.Ed
.Pp
The available
.Sy zfs.list
functions are:
.Bl -tag -width "xx"
.It Fn zfs.list.clones snapshot
Iterate through all clones of the given snapshot.
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width "snapshot (string)"
.It Ar snapshot Pq string
Must be a valid snapshot path in the current pool.
.El
.It Fn zfs.list.snapshots dataset
Iterate through all snapshots of the given dataset.
Each snapshot is returned as a string containing the full dataset name,
e.g. "pool/fs@snap".
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width "snapshot (string)"
.It Ar dataset Pq string
Must be a valid filesystem or volume.
.El
.It Fn zfs.list.children dataset
Iterate through all direct children of the given dataset.
Each child is returned as a string containing the full dataset name,
e.g. "pool/fs/child".
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width "snapshot (string)"
.It Ar dataset Pq string
Must be a valid filesystem or volume.
.El
.It Fn zfs.list.bookmarks dataset
Iterate through all bookmarks of the given dataset.
Each bookmark is returned as a string containing the full dataset name,
e.g. "pool/fs#bookmark".
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width "snapshot (string)"
.It Ar dataset Pq string
Must be a valid filesystem or volume.
.El
.It Fn zfs.list.holds snapshot
Iterate through all user holds on the given snapshot.
Each hold is returned
as a pair of the hold's tag and the timestamp (in seconds since the epoch) at
which it was created.
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width "snapshot (string)"
.It Ar snapshot Pq string
Must be a valid snapshot.
.El
.It Fn zfs.list.properties dataset
An alias for zfs.list.user_properties (see relevant entry).
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width "snapshot (string)"
.It Ar dataset Pq string
Must be a valid filesystem, snapshot, or volume.
.El
.It Fn zfs.list.user_properties dataset
Iterate through all user properties for the given dataset.
For each step of the iteration, output the property name, its value,
and its source.
Throws a Lua error if the dataset is invalid.
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width "snapshot (string)"
.It Ar dataset Pq string
Must be a valid filesystem, snapshot, or volume.
.El
.It Fn zfs.list.system_properties dataset
Returns an array of strings, the names of the valid system (non-user defined)
properties for the given dataset.
Throws a Lua error if the dataset is invalid.
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width "snapshot (string)"
.It Ar dataset Pq string
Must be a valid filesystem, snapshot or volume.
.El
.El
.El
.
.Sh EXAMPLES
.
.Ss Example 1
The following channel program recursively destroys a filesystem and all its
snapshots and children in a naive manner.
Note that this does not involve any error handling or reporting.
.Bd -literal -offset indent
function destroy_recursive(root)
    for child in zfs.list.children(root) do
        destroy_recursive(child)
    end
    for snap in zfs.list.snapshots(root) do
        zfs.sync.destroy(snap)
    end
    zfs.sync.destroy(root)
end
destroy_recursive("pool/somefs")
.Ed
.
.Ss Example 2
A more verbose and robust version of the same channel program, which
properly detects and reports errors, and also takes the dataset to destroy
as a command line argument, would be as follows:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
succeeded = {}
failed = {}

function destroy_recursive(root)
    for child in zfs.list.children(root) do
        destroy_recursive(child)
    end
    for snap in zfs.list.snapshots(root) do
        err = zfs.sync.destroy(snap)
        if (err ~= 0) then
            failed[snap] = err
        else
            succeeded[snap] = err
        end
    end
    err = zfs.sync.destroy(root)
    if (err ~= 0) then
        failed[root] = err
    else
        succeeded[root] = err
    end
end

args = ...
argv = args["argv"]

destroy_recursive(argv[1])

results = {}
results["succeeded"] = succeeded
results["failed"] = failed
return results
.Ed
.
.Ss Example 3
The following function performs a forced promote operation by attempting to
promote the given clone and destroying any conflicting snapshots.
.Bd -literal -offset indent
function force_promote(ds)
   errno, details = zfs.check.promote(ds)
   if (errno == EEXIST) then
       assert(details ~= Nil)
       for i, snap in ipairs(details) do
           zfs.sync.destroy(ds .. "@" .. snap)
       end
   elseif (errno ~= 0) then
       return errno
   end
   return zfs.sync.promote(ds)
end
.Ed