xref: /freebsd/sbin/newfs/newfs.8 (revision 09e8dea79366f1e5b3a73e8a271b26e4b6bf2e6a)
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32.\"     @(#)newfs.8	8.6 (Berkeley) 5/3/95
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd May 18, 2002
36.Dt NEWFS 8
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm newfs ,
40.Nd construct a new filesystem
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Op Fl NU
44.Op Fl O Ar filesystem-type
45.Op Fl S Ar sector-size
46.Op Fl T Ar disktype
47.Op Fl a Ar maxcontig
48.Op Fl b Ar block-size
49.Op Fl c Ar blocks-per-cylinder-group
50.Op Fl d Ar max-extent-size
51.Op Fl e Ar maxbpg
52.Op Fl f Ar frag-size
53.Op Fl g Ar avgfilesize
54.Op Fl h Ar avfpdir
55.Op Fl i Ar bytes
56.Op Fl m Ar free space
57.Op Fl o Ar optimization
58.Op Fl s Ar size
59.Ar special
60.Sh DESCRIPTION
61.Nm Newfs
62is used to initialize and clear filesystems before first use.
63Before running
64.Nm
65the disk must be labeled using
66.Xr disklabel 8 .
67.Nm Newfs
68builds a filesystem on the specified special file.
69(We often refer to the
70.Dq special file
71as the
72.Dq disk ,
73although the special file need not be a physical disk.
74In fact, it need not even be special.)
75Typically the defaults are reasonable, however
76.Nm
77has numerous options to allow the defaults to be selectively overridden.
78.Pp
79The following options define the general layout policies:
80.Bl -tag -width indent
81.It Fl T Ar disktype
82For backward compatibility.
83.It Fl N
84Cause the filesystem parameters to be printed out
85without really creating the filesystem.
86.It Fl O
87Use 1 to specify that a UFS1 format filesystem be built;
88use 2 to specify that a UFS2 format filesystem be built.
89The default is UFS1 format, but will eventually be changed to UFS2.
90.It Fl U
91Enables soft updates on the new filesystem.
92.It Fl a Ar maxcontig
93Specify the maximum number of contiguous blocks that will be
94laid out before forcing a rotational delay.
95The default value is 16.
96See
97.Xr tunefs 8
98for more details on how to set this option.
99.It Fl b Ar block-size
100The block size of the filesystem, in bytes.  It must be a power of 2.  The
101default size is 16384 bytes, and the smallest allowable size is 4096 bytes.
102The optimal block:fragment ratio is 8:1.
103Other ratios are possible, but are not recommended,
104and may produce poor results.
105.It Fl c Ar number of blocks per cylinders group
106The number of blocks per cylinder group in a filesystem.  The default
107is to compute the maximum allowed by the other parameters.  This value is
108dependent on a number of other parameters, in particular the block size
109and the number of bytes per inode.
110.It Fl d Ar max extent size
111The filesystem may choose to store large files using extents.
112This parameter specifies the largest extent size that may be used.
113It is presently limited to its default value which is 16 times
114the filesystem blocksize.
115.It Fl e Ar maxbpg
116Indicate the maximum number of blocks any single file can
117allocate out of a cylinder group before it is forced to begin
118allocating blocks from another cylinder group.
119The default is about one quarter of the total blocks in a cylinder group.
120See
121.Xr tunefs 8
122for more details on how to set this option.
123.It Fl f Ar frag-size
124The fragment size of the filesystem in bytes.  It must be a power of two
125ranging in value between
126.Ar blocksize Ns /8
127and
128.Ar blocksize .
129The default is 2048 bytes.
130.It Fl g Ar avgfilesize
131The expected average file size for the filesystem.
132.It Fl h Ar avgfpdir
133The expected average number of files per directory on the filesystem.
134.It Fl i Ar number of bytes per inode
135Specify the density of inodes in the filesystem.
136The default is to create an inode for every
137.Pq 4 * Ar frag-size
138bytes of data space.
139If fewer inodes are desired, a larger number should be used;
140to create more inodes a smaller number should be given.
141One inode is required for each distinct file, so this value effectively
142specifies the average file size on the filesystem.
143.It Fl m Ar free space \&%
144The percentage of space reserved from normal users; the minimum free
145space threshold.
146The default value used is
147defined by
148.Dv MINFREE
149from
150.Aq Pa ufs/ffs/fs.h ,
151currently 8%.
152See
153.Xr tunefs 8
154for more details on how to set this option.
155.It Fl o Ar optimization\ preference
156.Pq Ar space No or Ar time .
157The filesystem can either be instructed to try to minimize the time spent
158allocating blocks, or to try to minimize the space fragmentation on the disk.
159If the value of minfree (see above) is less than 8%,
160the default is to optimize for
161.Ar space ;
162if the value of minfree is greater than or equal to 8%,
163the default is to optimize for
164.Ar time .
165See
166.Xr tunefs 8
167for more details on how to set this option.
168.It Fl s Ar size
169The size of the filesystem in sectors.  This value defaults to the size of the
170raw partition specified in
171.Ar special
172(in other words,
173.Nm
174will use the entire partition for the filesystem).
175.El
176.Pp
177The following options override the standard sizes for the disk geometry.
178Their default values are taken from the disk label.
179Changing these defaults is useful only when using
180.Nm
181to build a filesystem whose raw image will eventually be used on a
182different type of disk than the one on which it is initially created
183(for example on a write-once disk).
184Note that changing any of these values from their defaults will make
185it impossible for
186.Xr fsck 8
187to find the alternate superblocks if the standard superblock is lost.
188.Bl -tag -width indent
189.It Fl S Ar sector-size
190The size of a sector in bytes (almost never anything but 512).
191.El
192.Sh EXAMPLES
193.Dl newfs /dev/ad3s1a
194.Pp
195Creates a new ufs filesystem on
196.Pa ad3s1a .
197.Nm
198will use a block size of 16384 bytes, a fragment size of 2048 bytes
199and the largest possible number of blocks per cylinders group.
200These values tend to produce better performance for most applications
201than the historical defaults
202(8192 byte block size and 1024 byte fragment size).
203This large fragment size may lead to much wasted space
204on filesystems that contain many small files.
205.Sh SEE ALSO
206.Xr fdformat 1 ,
207.Xr disktab 5 ,
208.Xr fs 5 ,
209.Xr camcontrol 8 ,
210.Xr disklabel 8 ,
211.Xr diskpart 8 ,
212.Xr dumpfs 8 ,
213.Xr fsck 8 ,
214.Xr mount 8 ,
215.Xr tunefs 8 ,
216.Xr vinum 8
217.Rs
218.%A M. McKusick
219.%A W. Joy
220.%A S. Leffler
221.%A R. Fabry
222.%T A Fast File System for UNIX
223.%J ACM Transactions on Computer Systems 2
224.%V 3
225.%P pp 181-197
226.%D August 1984
227.%O (reprinted in the BSD System Manager's Manual)
228.Re
229.Sh HISTORY
230The
231.Nm
232command appeared in
233.Bx 4.2 .
234