xref: /freebsd/sbin/newfs/newfs.8 (revision 4b2eaea43fec8e8792be611dea204071a10b655a)
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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 file system
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 avgfpdir
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
61The
62.Nm
63utility is used to initialize and clear file systems before first use.
64Before running
65.Nm
66the disk must be labeled using
67.Xr disklabel 8 .
68The
69.Nm
70utility builds a file system on the specified special file.
71(We often refer to the
72.Dq special file
73as the
74.Dq disk ,
75although the special file need not be a physical disk.
76In fact, it need not even be special.)
77Typically the defaults are reasonable, however
78.Nm
79has numerous options to allow the defaults to be selectively overridden.
80.Pp
81The following options define the general layout policies:
82.Bl -tag -width indent
83.It Fl T Ar disktype
84For backward compatibility.
85.It Fl N
86Cause the file system parameters to be printed out
87without really creating the file system.
88.It Fl O Ar filesystem-type
89Use 1 to specify that a UFS1 format file system be built;
90use 2 to specify that a UFS2 format file system be built.
91The default is UFS1 format, but will eventually be changed to UFS2.
92.It Fl U
93Enables soft updates on the new file system.
94.It Fl a Ar maxcontig
95Specify the maximum number of contiguous blocks that will be
96laid out before forcing a rotational delay.
97The default value is 16.
98See
99.Xr tunefs 8
100for more details on how to set this option.
101.It Fl b Ar block-size
102The block size of the file system, in bytes.
103It must be a power of 2.
104The
105default size is 16384 bytes, and the smallest allowable size is 4096 bytes.
106The optimal block:fragment ratio is 8:1.
107Other ratios are possible, but are not recommended,
108and may produce poor results.
109.It Fl c Ar blocks-per-cylinder-group
110The number of blocks per cylinder group in a file system.
111The default is to compute the maximum allowed by the other parameters.
112This value is
113dependent on a number of other parameters, in particular the block size
114and the number of bytes per inode.
115.It Fl d Ar max-extent-size
116The file system may choose to store large files using extents.
117This parameter specifies the largest extent size that may be used.
118It is presently limited to its default value which is 16 times
119the file system blocksize.
120.It Fl e Ar maxbpg
121Indicate the maximum number of blocks any single file can
122allocate out of a cylinder group before it is forced to begin
123allocating blocks from another cylinder group.
124The default is about one quarter of the total blocks in a cylinder group.
125See
126.Xr tunefs 8
127for more details on how to set this option.
128.It Fl f Ar frag-size
129The fragment size of the file system in bytes.
130It must be a power of two
131ranging in value between
132.Ar blocksize Ns /8
133and
134.Ar blocksize .
135The default is 2048 bytes.
136.It Fl g Ar avgfilesize
137The expected average file size for the file system.
138.It Fl h Ar avgfpdir
139The expected average number of files per directory on the file system.
140.It Fl i Ar bytes
141Specify the density of inodes in the file system.
142The default is to create an inode for every
143.Pq 4 * Ar frag-size
144bytes of data space.
145If fewer inodes are desired, a larger number should be used;
146to create more inodes a smaller number should be given.
147One inode is required for each distinct file, so this value effectively
148specifies the average file size on the file system.
149.It Fl m Ar free-space
150The percentage of space reserved from normal users; the minimum free
151space threshold.
152The default value used is
153defined by
154.Dv MINFREE
155from
156.Aq Pa ufs/ffs/fs.h ,
157currently 8%.
158See
159.Xr tunefs 8
160for more details on how to set this option.
161.It Fl o Ar optimization
162.Cm ( space
163or
164.Cm time ) .
165The file system can either be instructed to try to minimize the time spent
166allocating blocks, or to try to minimize the space fragmentation on the disk.
167If the value of minfree (see above) is less than 8%,
168the default is to optimize for
169.Cm space ;
170if the value of minfree is greater than or equal to 8%,
171the default is to optimize for
172.Cm time .
173See
174.Xr tunefs 8
175for more details on how to set this option.
176.It Fl s Ar size
177The size of the file system in sectors.
178This value defaults to the size of the
179raw partition specified in
180.Ar special
181(in other words,
182.Nm
183will use the entire partition for the file system).
184.El
185.Pp
186The following options override the standard sizes for the disk geometry.
187Their default values are taken from the disk label.
188Changing these defaults is useful only when using
189.Nm
190to build a file system whose raw image will eventually be used on a
191different type of disk than the one on which it is initially created
192(for example on a write-once disk).
193Note that changing any of these values from their defaults will make
194it impossible for
195.Xr fsck 8
196to find the alternate superblocks if the standard superblock is lost.
197.Bl -tag -width indent
198.It Fl S Ar sector-size
199The size of a sector in bytes (almost never anything but 512).
200.El
201.Sh EXAMPLES
202.Dl newfs /dev/ad3s1a
203.Pp
204Creates a new ufs file system on
205.Pa ad3s1a .
206The
207.Nm
208utility will use a block size of 16384 bytes, a fragment size of 2048 bytes
209and the largest possible number of blocks per cylinders group.
210These values tend to produce better performance for most applications
211than the historical defaults
212(8192 byte block size and 1024 byte fragment size).
213This large fragment size may lead to much wasted space
214on file systems that contain many small files.
215.Sh SEE ALSO
216.Xr fdformat 1 ,
217.Xr disktab 5 ,
218.Xr fs 5 ,
219.Xr camcontrol 8 ,
220.Xr disklabel 8 ,
221.Xr diskpart 8 ,
222.Xr dumpfs 8 ,
223.Xr fsck 8 ,
224.Xr mount 8 ,
225.Xr tunefs 8 ,
226.Xr vinum 8
227.Rs
228.%A M. McKusick
229.%A W. Joy
230.%A S. Leffler
231.%A R. Fabry
232.%T A Fast File System for UNIX
233.%J ACM Transactions on Computer Systems 2
234.%V 3
235.%P pp 181-197
236.%D August 1984
237.%O (reprinted in the BSD System Manager's Manual)
238.Re
239.Sh HISTORY
240The
241.Nm
242utility appeared in
243.Bx 4.2 .
244