xref: /freebsd/sbin/newfs/newfs.8 (revision ebbd4fa8c8427d3dd847ba33c45c996e0500e6ff)
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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
61The
62.Nm
63utility is used to initialize and clear filesystems before first use.
64Before running
65.Nm
66the disk must be labeled using
67.Xr disklabel 8 .
68The
69.Nm
70utility builds a filesystem 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 filesystem parameters to be printed out
87without really creating the filesystem.
88.It Fl O
89Use 1 to specify that a UFS1 format filesystem be built;
90use 2 to specify that a UFS2 format filesystem be built.
91The default is UFS1 format, but will eventually be changed to UFS2.
92.It Fl U
93Enables soft updates on the new filesystem.
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 filesystem, in bytes.  It must be a power of 2.  The
103default size is 16384 bytes, and the smallest allowable size is 4096 bytes.
104The optimal block:fragment ratio is 8:1.
105Other ratios are possible, but are not recommended,
106and may produce poor results.
107.It Fl c Ar number of blocks per cylinders group
108The number of blocks per cylinder group in a filesystem.  The default
109is to compute the maximum allowed by the other parameters.  This value is
110dependent on a number of other parameters, in particular the block size
111and the number of bytes per inode.
112.It Fl d Ar max extent size
113The filesystem may choose to store large files using extents.
114This parameter specifies the largest extent size that may be used.
115It is presently limited to its default value which is 16 times
116the filesystem blocksize.
117.It Fl e Ar maxbpg
118Indicate the maximum number of blocks any single file can
119allocate out of a cylinder group before it is forced to begin
120allocating blocks from another cylinder group.
121The default is about one quarter of the total blocks in a cylinder group.
122See
123.Xr tunefs 8
124for more details on how to set this option.
125.It Fl f Ar frag-size
126The fragment size of the filesystem in bytes.  It must be a power of two
127ranging in value between
128.Ar blocksize Ns /8
129and
130.Ar blocksize .
131The default is 2048 bytes.
132.It Fl g Ar avgfilesize
133The expected average file size for the filesystem.
134.It Fl h Ar avgfpdir
135The expected average number of files per directory on the filesystem.
136.It Fl i Ar number of bytes per inode
137Specify the density of inodes in the filesystem.
138The default is to create an inode for every
139.Pq 4 * Ar frag-size
140bytes of data space.
141If fewer inodes are desired, a larger number should be used;
142to create more inodes a smaller number should be given.
143One inode is required for each distinct file, so this value effectively
144specifies the average file size on the filesystem.
145.It Fl m Ar free space \&%
146The percentage of space reserved from normal users; the minimum free
147space threshold.
148The default value used is
149defined by
150.Dv MINFREE
151from
152.Aq Pa ufs/ffs/fs.h ,
153currently 8%.
154See
155.Xr tunefs 8
156for more details on how to set this option.
157.It Fl o Ar optimization\ preference
158.Pq Ar space No or Ar time .
159The filesystem can either be instructed to try to minimize the time spent
160allocating blocks, or to try to minimize the space fragmentation on the disk.
161If the value of minfree (see above) is less than 8%,
162the default is to optimize for
163.Ar space ;
164if the value of minfree is greater than or equal to 8%,
165the default is to optimize for
166.Ar time .
167See
168.Xr tunefs 8
169for more details on how to set this option.
170.It Fl s Ar size
171The size of the filesystem in sectors.  This value defaults to the size of the
172raw partition specified in
173.Ar special
174(in other words,
175.Nm
176will use the entire partition for the filesystem).
177.El
178.Pp
179The following options override the standard sizes for the disk geometry.
180Their default values are taken from the disk label.
181Changing these defaults is useful only when using
182.Nm
183to build a filesystem whose raw image will eventually be used on a
184different type of disk than the one on which it is initially created
185(for example on a write-once disk).
186Note that changing any of these values from their defaults will make
187it impossible for
188.Xr fsck 8
189to find the alternate superblocks if the standard superblock is lost.
190.Bl -tag -width indent
191.It Fl S Ar sector-size
192The size of a sector in bytes (almost never anything but 512).
193.El
194.Sh EXAMPLES
195.Dl newfs /dev/ad3s1a
196.Pp
197Creates a new ufs filesystem on
198.Pa ad3s1a .
199The
200.Nm
201utility will use a block size of 16384 bytes, a fragment size of 2048 bytes
202and the largest possible number of blocks per cylinders group.
203These values tend to produce better performance for most applications
204than the historical defaults
205(8192 byte block size and 1024 byte fragment size).
206This large fragment size may lead to much wasted space
207on filesystems that contain many small files.
208.Sh SEE ALSO
209.Xr fdformat 1 ,
210.Xr disktab 5 ,
211.Xr fs 5 ,
212.Xr camcontrol 8 ,
213.Xr disklabel 8 ,
214.Xr diskpart 8 ,
215.Xr dumpfs 8 ,
216.Xr fsck 8 ,
217.Xr mount 8 ,
218.Xr tunefs 8 ,
219.Xr vinum 8
220.Rs
221.%A M. McKusick
222.%A W. Joy
223.%A S. Leffler
224.%A R. Fabry
225.%T A Fast File System for UNIX
226.%J ACM Transactions on Computer Systems 2
227.%V 3
228.%P pp 181-197
229.%D August 1984
230.%O (reprinted in the BSD System Manager's Manual)
231.Re
232.Sh HISTORY
233The
234.Nm
235utility appeared in
236.Bx 4.2 .
237