xref: /freebsd/sbin/newfs/newfs.8 (revision 54ebdd631db8c0bba2baab0155f603a8b5cf014a)
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28.\"     @(#)newfs.8	8.6 (Berkeley) 5/3/95
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd March 21, 2008
32.Dt NEWFS 8
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm newfs
36.Nd construct a new UFS1/UFS2 file system
37.Sh SYNOPSIS
38.Nm
39.Op Fl EJNUln
40.Op Fl L Ar volname
41.Op Fl O Ar filesystem-type
42.Op Fl S Ar sector-size
43.Op Fl T Ar disktype
44.Op Fl a Ar maxcontig
45.Op Fl b Ar block-size
46.Op Fl c Ar blocks-per-cylinder-group
47.Op Fl d Ar max-extent-size
48.Op Fl e Ar maxbpg
49.Op Fl f Ar frag-size
50.Op Fl g Ar avgfilesize
51.Op Fl h Ar avgfpdir
52.Op Fl i Ar bytes
53.Op Fl m Ar free-space
54.Op Fl o Ar optimization
55.Op Fl p Ar partition
56.Op Fl r Ar reserved
57.Op Fl s Ar size
58.Ar special
59.Sh DESCRIPTION
60The
61.Nm
62utility is used to initialize and clear file systems before first use.
63The
64.Nm
65utility builds a file system on the specified special file.
66(We often refer to the
67.Dq special file
68as the
69.Dq disk ,
70although the special file need not be a physical disk.
71In fact, it need not even be special.)
72Typically the defaults are reasonable, however
73.Nm
74has numerous options to allow the defaults to be selectively overridden.
75.Pp
76The following options define the general layout policies:
77.Bl -tag -width indent
78.It Fl E
79Erase the content of the disk before making the filesystem.
80The reserved area in front of the superblock (for bootcode) will not be erased.
81
82This is a relevant option for flash based storage devices that use
83wear levelling algorithms.
84
85NB: Erasing may take as long time as writing every sector on the disk.
86.It Fl J
87Enable journaling on the new file system via gjournal.
88.It Fl L Ar volname
89Add a volume label to the new file system.
90.It Fl N
91Cause the file system parameters to be printed out
92without really creating the file system.
93.It Fl O Ar filesystem-type
94Use 1 to specify that a UFS1 format file system be built;
95use 2 to specify that a UFS2 format file system be built.
96The default format is UFS2.
97.It Fl T Ar disktype
98For backward compatibility.
99.It Fl U
100Enable soft updates on the new file system.
101.It Fl a Ar maxcontig
102Specify the maximum number of contiguous blocks that will be
103laid out before forcing a rotational delay.
104The default value is 16.
105See
106.Xr tunefs 8
107for more details on how to set this option.
108.It Fl b Ar block-size
109The block size of the file system, in bytes.
110It must be a power of 2.
111The
112default size is 16384 bytes, and the smallest allowable size is 4096 bytes.
113The optimal block:fragment ratio is 8:1.
114Other ratios are possible, but are not recommended,
115and may produce poor results.
116.It Fl c Ar blocks-per-cylinder-group
117The number of blocks per cylinder group in a file system.
118The default is to compute the maximum allowed by the other parameters.
119This value is
120dependent on a number of other parameters, in particular the block size
121and the number of bytes per inode.
122.It Fl d Ar max-extent-size
123The file system may choose to store large files using extents.
124This parameter specifies the largest extent size that may be used.
125It is presently limited to its default value which is 16 times
126the file system blocksize.
127.It Fl e Ar maxbpg
128Indicate the maximum number of blocks any single file can
129allocate out of a cylinder group before it is forced to begin
130allocating blocks from another cylinder group.
131The default is about one quarter of the total blocks in a cylinder group.
132See
133.Xr tunefs 8
134for more details on how to set this option.
135.It Fl f Ar frag-size
136The fragment size of the file system in bytes.
137It must be a power of two
138ranging in value between
139.Ar blocksize Ns /8
140and
141.Ar blocksize .
142The default is 2048 bytes.
143.It Fl g Ar avgfilesize
144The expected average file size for the file system.
145.It Fl h Ar avgfpdir
146The expected average number of files per directory on the file system.
147.It Fl i Ar bytes
148Specify the density of inodes in the file system.
149The default is to create an inode for every
150.Pq 4 * Ar frag-size
151bytes of data space.
152If fewer inodes are desired, a larger number should be used;
153to create more inodes a smaller number should be given.
154One inode is required for each distinct file, so this value effectively
155specifies the average file size on the file system.
156.It Fl l
157Enable multilabel MAC on the new file system.
158.It Fl m Ar free-space
159The percentage of space reserved from normal users; the minimum free
160space threshold.
161The default value used is
162defined by
163.Dv MINFREE
164from
165.In ufs/ffs/fs.h ,
166currently 8%.
167See
168.Xr tunefs 8
169for more details on how to set this option.
170.It Fl n
171Do not create a
172.Pa .snap
173directory on the new file system.
174The resulting file system will not support snapshot generation, so
175.Xr dump 8
176in live mode and background
177.Xr fsck 8
178will not function properly.
179The traditional
180.Xr fsck 8
181and offline
182.Xr dump 8
183will work on the file system.
184This option is intended primarily for memory or vnode-backed file systems that
185do not require
186.Xr dump 8
187or
188.Xr fsck 8
189support.
190.It Fl o Ar optimization
191.Cm ( space
192or
193.Cm time ) .
194The file system can either be instructed to try to minimize the time spent
195allocating blocks, or to try to minimize the space fragmentation on the disk.
196If the value of minfree (see above) is less than 8%,
197the default is to optimize for
198.Cm space ;
199if the value of minfree is greater than or equal to 8%,
200the default is to optimize for
201.Cm time .
202See
203.Xr tunefs 8
204for more details on how to set this option.
205.It Fl p Ar partition
206The partition name (a..h) you want to use in case the underlying image
207is a file, so you don't have access to individual partitions through the
208filesystem.
209Can also be used with a device, e.g.
210.Nm
211.Fl p Ar f
212.Ar /dev/da1s3
213is equivalent to
214.Nm
215.Ar /dev/da1s3f .
216.It Fl r Ar reserved
217The size, in sectors, of reserved space
218at the end of the partition specified in
219.Ar special .
220This space will not be occupied by the file system;
221it can be used by other consumers such as
222.Xr geom 4 .
223Defaults to 0.
224.It Fl s Ar size
225The size of the file system in sectors.
226This value defaults to the size of the
227raw partition specified in
228.Ar special
229less the
230.Ar reserved
231space at its end (see
232.Fl r ) .
233A
234.Ar size
235of 0 can also be used to choose the default value.
236A valid
237.Ar size
238value cannot be larger than the default one,
239which means that the file system cannot extend into the reserved space.
240.El
241.Pp
242The following options override the standard sizes for the disk geometry.
243Their default values are taken from the disk label.
244Changing these defaults is useful only when using
245.Nm
246to build a file system whose raw image will eventually be used on a
247different type of disk than the one on which it is initially created
248(for example on a write-once disk).
249Note that changing any of these values from their defaults will make
250it impossible for
251.Xr fsck 8
252to find the alternate superblocks if the standard superblock is lost.
253.Bl -tag -width indent
254.It Fl S Ar sector-size
255The size of a sector in bytes (almost never anything but 512).
256.El
257.Sh EXAMPLES
258.Dl newfs /dev/ad3s1a
259.Pp
260Creates a new ufs file system on
261.Pa ad3s1a .
262The
263.Nm
264utility will use a block size of 16384 bytes, a fragment size of 2048 bytes
265and the largest possible number of blocks per cylinders group.
266These values tend to produce better performance for most applications
267than the historical defaults
268(8192 byte block size and 1024 byte fragment size).
269This large fragment size may lead to much wasted space
270on file systems that contain many small files.
271.Sh SEE ALSO
272.Xr fdformat 1 ,
273.Xr geom 4 ,
274.Xr disktab 5 ,
275.Xr fs 5 ,
276.Xr bsdlabel 8 ,
277.Xr camcontrol 8 ,
278.Xr dump 8 ,
279.Xr dumpfs 8 ,
280.Xr fsck 8 ,
281.Xr mount 8 ,
282.Xr tunefs 8 ,
283.Xr gvinum 8
284.Rs
285.%A M. McKusick
286.%A W. Joy
287.%A S. Leffler
288.%A R. Fabry
289.%T A Fast File System for UNIX
290.%J ACM Transactions on Computer Systems 2
291.%V 3
292.%P pp 181-197
293.%D August 1984
294.%O (reprinted in the BSD System Manager's Manual)
295.Re
296.Sh HISTORY
297The
298.Nm
299utility appeared in
300.Bx 4.2 .
301