xref: /freebsd/sbin/newfs/newfs.8 (revision c68159a6d8eede11766cf13896d0f7670dbd51aa)
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32.\"     @(#)newfs.8	8.6 (Berkeley) 5/3/95
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd December 19, 2000
36.Dt NEWFS 8
37.Os BSD 4.2
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm newfs ,
40.Nm mount_mfs
41.Nd construct a new file system
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.Nm
44.Op Fl NO
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 cylinders
50.Op Fl d Ar rotdelay
51.Op Fl e Ar maxbpg
52.Op Fl f Ar frag-size
53.Op Fl i Ar bytes
54.Op Fl k Ar skew
55.Op Fl l Ar interleave
56.Op Fl m Ar free space
57.Op Fl n Ar rotational positions
58.Op Fl o Ar optimization
59.Op Fl p Ar sectors
60.Op Fl r Ar revolutions
61.Op Fl s Ar size
62.Op Fl t Ar tracks
63.Op Fl u Ar sectors
64.Op Fl v
65.Op Fl x Ar sectors
66.Ar special
67.Nm mount_mfs
68.Op Fl N
69.Op Fl F Ar file
70.Op Fl T Ar disktype
71.Op Fl a Ar maxcontig
72.Op Fl b Ar block-size
73.Op Fl c Ar cylinders
74.Op Fl d Ar rotdelay
75.Op Fl e Ar maxbpg
76.Op Fl f Ar frag-size
77.Op Fl i Ar bytes
78.Op Fl m Ar free space
79.Op Fl n Ar rotational positions
80.Op Fl o Ar options
81.Op Fl s Ar size
82.Ar special node
83.Sh DESCRIPTION
84.Nm Newfs
85replaces the more obtuse
86.Xr mkfs 8
87program.
88Before running
89.Nm
90or
91.Nm mount_mfs ,
92the disk must be labeled using
93.Xr disklabel 8 .
94.Nm Newfs
95builds a file system on the specified special file.
96(We often refer to the
97.Dq special file
98as the
99.Dq disk ,
100although the special file need not be a physical disk.
101In fact, it need not even be special.)
102Typically the defaults are reasonable, however
103.Nm
104has numerous options to allow the defaults to be selectively overridden.
105.Pp
106.Nm Mount_mfs
107is used to build a file system in virtual memory and then mount it
108on a specified node.
109.Nm Mount_mfs
110exits and the contents of the file system are lost
111when the file system is unmounted.
112If
113.Nm mount_mfs
114is sent a signal while running,
115for example during system shutdown,
116it will attempt to unmount its
117corresponding file system.
118The parameters to
119.Nm mount_mfs
120are the same as those to
121.Nm .
122If the
123.Fl T
124flag is specified (see below), the special file is unused.
125Otherwise, it is only used to read the disk label which provides
126a set of configuration parameters for the memory based file system.
127The special file is typically that of the primary swap area,
128since that is where the file system will be backed up when
129free memory gets low and the memory supporting
130the file system has to be paged.
131.Pp
132The following options define the general layout policies:
133.Bl -tag -width indent
134.It Fl T Ar disktype
135For backward compatibility and for
136.Nm mount_mfs .
137.It Fl F Ar file
138.Nm Mount_mfs
139will use this file for the image of the filesystem.  When
140.Nm mount_mfs
141exits, this file will be left behind.
142.It Fl N
143Cause the file system parameters to be printed out
144without really creating the file system.
145.It Fl O
146Create a
147.Bx 4.3
148format filesystem.
149This options is primarily used to build root filesystems
150that can be understood by older boot ROMs.
151.It Fl T
152Use information for the specified disk from
153.Pa /etc/disktab
154instead of trying to get the information from a disklabel.
155.It Fl a Ar maxcontig
156Specify the maximum number of contiguous blocks that will be
157laid out before forcing a rotational delay (see the
158.Fl d
159option).
160The default value is 1.
161See
162.Xr tunefs 8
163for more details on how to set this option.
164.It Fl b Ar block-size
165The block size of the file system, in bytes.  It must be a power of 2.  The
166default size is 8192 bytes, and the smallest allowable size is 4096 bytes.
167.It Fl c Ar #cylinders/group
168The number of cylinders per cylinder group in a file system.  The default value
169is 16.  The maximum value is dependent on a number of other parameters, in
170particular the block size.  The best way to find the maximum value for a
171specific file system is to attempt to specify a value which is far too large:
172.Nm
173will print out the maximum value.
174.It Fl d Ar rotdelay
175This parameter once specified the minimum time in milliseconds required to
176initiate another disk transfer on the same cylinder.  It was used in determining
177the rotationally optimal layout for disk blocks within a file.  Modern disks
178with read/write-behind achieve higher performance with this feature disabled, so
179this value should be left at the default value of 0 milliseconds.  See
180.Xr tunefs 8
181for more details on how to set this option.
182.It Fl e Ar maxbpg
183Indicate the maximum number of blocks any single file can
184allocate out of a cylinder group before it is forced to begin
185allocating blocks from another cylinder group.
186The default is about one quarter of the total blocks in a cylinder group.
187See
188.Xr tunefs 8
189for more details on how to set this option.
190.It Fl f Ar frag-size
191The fragment size of the file system in bytes.  It must be a power of two
192ranging in value between
193.Ar blocksize Ns /8
194and
195.Ar blocksize .
196The default is 1024 bytes.
197.It Fl i Ar number of bytes per inode
198Specify the density of inodes in the file system.
199The default is to create an inode for every
200.Pq 4 * Ar frag-size
201bytes of data space.
202If fewer inodes are desired, a larger number should be used;
203to create more inodes a smaller number should be given.
204One inode is required for each distinct file, so this value effectively
205specifies the average file size on the file system.
206.It Fl m Ar free space \&%
207The percentage of space reserved from normal users; the minimum free
208space threshold.
209The default value used is
210defined by
211.Dv MINFREE
212from
213.Aq Pa ufs/ffs/fs.h ,
214currently 8%.
215See
216.Xr tunefs 8
217for more details on how to set this option.
218.It Fl n Ar number of distinguished rotational positions
219UFS has the ability to keep track of the availability of blocks at different
220rotational positions, so that it could lay out the data to be picked up with
221minimum rotational latency.  This parameter specifies the default number of
222rotational positions to distinguish.
223.Pp
224Nowadays this value should be set to 1 (which essentially disables the
225rotational position table) because modern drives with read-ahead and
226write-behind do better without the rotational position table.
227.It Fl o Ar optimization\ preference
228.Pq Ar space No or Ar time .
229The file system can either be instructed to try to minimize the time spent
230allocating blocks, or to try to minimize the space fragmentation on the disk.
231If the value of minfree (see above) is less than 8%,
232the default is to optimize for
233.Ar space ;
234if the value of minfree is greater than or equal to 8%,
235the default is to optimize for
236.Ar time .
237See
238.Xr tunefs 8
239for more details on how to set this option.
240.It Fl s Ar size
241The size of the file system in sectors.  This value defaults to the size of the
242raw partition specified in
243.Ar special
244(in other words,
245.Nm
246will use the entire partition for the file system).
247.It Fl v
248Specify that the disk does not contain any partitions, and that
249.Nm
250should build a file system on the whole disk.
251This option is useful for synthetic disks such as
252.Nm vinum .
253.El
254.Pp
255The following options override the standard sizes for the disk geometry.
256Their default values are taken from the disk label.
257Changing these defaults is useful only when using
258.Nm
259to build a file system whose raw image will eventually be used on a
260different type of disk than the one on which it is initially created
261(for example on a write-once disk).
262Note that changing any of these values from their defaults will make
263it impossible for
264.Xr fsck 8
265to find the alternate superblocks if the standard superblock is lost.
266.Bl -tag -width indent
267.It Fl S Ar sector-size
268The size of a sector in bytes (almost never anything but 512).
269.It Fl k Ar sector \&0 skew , per track
270Used to describe perturbations in the media format to compensate for
271a slow controller.
272Track skew is the offset of sector 0 on track N relative to sector 0
273on track N-1 on the same cylinder.
274This option is of historical importance only; modern controllers are always fast
275enough to handle operations back-to-back.
276.It Fl l Ar hardware sector interleave
277Used to describe perturbations in the media format to compensate for
278a slow controller.
279Interleave is physical sector interleave on each track,
280specified as the denominator of the ratio:
281.Dl sectors read/sectors passed over
282Thus an interleave of 1/1 implies contiguous layout, while 1/2 implies
283logical sector 0 is separated by one sector from logical sector 1.
284This option is of historical importance only; the physical sector layout of
285modern disks is not visible from outside.
286.It Fl p Ar spare sectors per track
287Spare sectors (bad sector replacements) are physical sectors that occupy
288space at the end of each track.
289They are not counted as part of the sectors/track
290.Pq Fl u
291since they are not available to the file system for data allocation.
292This option is of historical importance only.  Modern disks perform their own
293bad sector allocation.
294.It Fl r Ar revolutions/minute
295The speed of the disk in revolutions per minute.  This value is no longer of
296interest, since all the parameters which depend on it are usually disabled.
297.It Fl t Ar #tracks/cylinder
298The number of tracks/cylinder available for data allocation by the file
299system.
300The default is 1.
301If zero is specified, the value from the disklabel will be used.
302.It Fl u Ar sectors/track
303The number of sectors per track available for data allocation by the file
304system.
305The default is 4096.
306If zero is specified, the value from the disklabel will be used.
307This does not include sectors reserved at the end of each track for bad
308block replacement (see the
309.Fl p
310option).
311.It Fl x Ar spare sectors per cylinder
312Spare sectors (bad sector replacements) are physical sectors that occupy
313space at the end of the last track in the cylinder.
314They are deducted from the sectors/track
315.Pq Fl u
316of the last track of each cylinder since they are not available to the file
317system for data allocation.
318This option is of historical importance only.  Modern disks perform their own
319bad sector allocation.
320.El
321.Pp
322The options to the
323.Nm mount_mfs
324command are as described for the
325.Nm
326command, except for the
327.Fl o
328option.
329.Pp
330That option is as follows:
331.Bl -tag -width indent
332.It Fl o
333Options are specified with a
334.Fl o
335flag followed by a comma separated string of options.
336See the
337.Xr mount 8
338man page for possible options and their meanings.
339.El
340.Sh EXAMPLES
341.Pp
342.Dl newfs -b 16384 -f 4096 -c 100 /dev/ad3s1a
343.Pp
344Creates a new ufs file system on
345.Pa ad3s1a .
346.Nm
347will use a block size of 16384 bytes, a fragement size of 4096 bytes
348and have 100 cylinders per cylinder group rather than the defaults.
349These values are tend to produce better performance than the defaults
350for file systems larger than about 5 gigabytes.
351.Pp
352.Dl mount_mfs -s 131072 -o nosuid,nodev /dev/da0s1b /tmp
353.Pp
354Mount a 64 MB large memory file system on
355.Pa /tmp ,
356with
357.Xr mount 8
358options
359.Ar nosuid
360and
361.Ar nodev .
362.Sh SEE ALSO
363.Xr fdformat 1 ,
364.Xr disktab 5 ,
365.Xr fs 5 ,
366.Xr camcontrol 8 ,
367.Xr disklabel 8 ,
368.Xr diskpart 8 ,
369.Xr dumpfs 8 ,
370.Xr fsck 8 ,
371.Xr mount 8 ,
372.Xr tunefs 8 ,
373.Xr vinum 8
374.Rs
375.%A M. McKusick
376.%A W. Joy
377.%A S. Leffler
378.%A R. Fabry
379.%T A Fast File System for UNIX ,
380.%J ACM Transactions on Computer Systems 2
381.%V 3
382.%P pp 181-197
383.%D August 1984
384.%O (reprinted in the BSD System Manager's Manual)
385.Re
386.Sh HISTORY
387The
388.Nm
389command appeared in
390.Bx 4.2 .
391