mkfs_hfs(1M)

NAME

mkfs_hfs: mkfs — construct an HFS file system

SYNOPSIS

/usr/sbin/mkfs [-F hfs] [-d] [-L|-S] [-V] [-o specific_options] special [size [nsect ntrack blksize fragsize ncpg minfree rps nbpi]]

/usr/sbin/mkfs [-d] [-F hfs] [-L|-S] [-V] [-o specific_options] special [proto [nsect ntrack blksize fragsize ncpg minfree rps nbpi]]

/usr/sbin/mkfs [-F hfs] [-m] [-V] special

Remarks

HFS file systems are normally created with the newfs command (see newfs_hfs(1M)).

DESCRIPTION

The mkfs command constructs an HFS file system by writing on the special file special. The mkfs command builds the file system with a root directory and a lost+found directory (see fsck_hfs(1M)). The FS_CLEAN magic number for the file system is stored in the superblock.

The mkfs command creates the file system with a rotational delay value of zero (see tunefs(1M)).

Options

mkfs recognizes the following options:

-F hfs

Specify the HFS file system type.

-d

This option allows the mkfs command to make the new file system in an ordinary file. In this case, special is the name of an existing file in which to create the file system. When this option is used, the size of the new file system cannot be defaulted. It must either be specified on the command line following special, or if a prototype file is being used, it must be the second token in the prototype file as usual.

-L|-S

There are two types of HFS file systems, distinguished mainly by directory formats that place different limits on the length of file names.

If -L is specified, build a long-file-name file system that allows directory entries (file names) to be up to MAXNAMLEN (255) bytes long.

If -S is specified, build a short-file-name file system that allows directory entries (file names) to be up to DIRSIZ (14) bytes long.

If neither -L nor -S is specified, build a file system of the same type as the root file system.

-m

Display the command line that was used to create the file system. The file system must already exist. This option provides a means to determine the parameters used to construct the file system.

-V

Echo the completed command line, but perform no other action. The command line is generated by incorporating the user-specified options and other information derived from /etc/fstab. This option allows the user to verify the command line.

-o specific_options

Specify a list of comma separated suboptions and/or keyword/attribute pairs from the list below.

largefiles|nolargefiles: Controls the largefile featurebit for the file system. The default is nolargefiles. This means the bit is not set, and files created on the file system will be limited to less than 2 gigabytes in size. If largefiles is specified, the bit is set and the maximum size for files created on the file system is not limited to 2 gigabytes (see mount_hfs(1M) and fsadm_hfs(1M)).

Arguments

mkfs recognizes the following arguments:

special: The file name of a special file.

One of the following arguments can be included after special:

size

The number of DEV_BSIZE blocks in the file system. DEV_BSIZE is defined in <sys/param.h>. The default value is the size of the entire disk or disk section minus any swap or boot space requested.

The size of HFS file systems are limited to 256GB-1 or 268,435,455 blocks.

proto

The name of a file that can be opened. The mkfs command assumes it is a prototype file and takes its directions from that file. See "Prototype File Structure" below.

The following optional arguments allow fine-tune control over file system parameters:

nsect

The number of sectors per track on the disk. The default value is 32 sectors per track.

ntrack

The number of tracks per cylinder on the disk. The default value is 16 tracks per cylinder.

blksize

The primary block size for files on the file system. Valid values are: 4096, 8192, 16384, 32768, and 65536. The default value is 8192 bytes.

fragsize

The fragment size for files on the file system. fragsize represents the smallest amount of disk space to be allocated to a file. It must be a power of two no smaller than DEV_BSIZE and no smaller than one-eighth of the file system block size. The default value is 1024 bytes.

ncpg

The number of disk cylinders per cylinder group. This number must be in the range 1 to 32. The default value is 16 cylinders per group.

minfree

The minimum percentage of free disk space allowed. The default value is 10 percent.

Once the file system capacity reaches this threshold, only users with appropriate privileges can allocate disk blocks.

rps

The number of disk revolutions per second. The default value is 60 revolutions per second.

nbpi

The density of inodes in the file system specified as the number of bytes per inode. The default value is 6144 bytes per inode.

This number should reflect the expected average size of files in the file system. If fewer inodes are desired, a larger number should be used; if more inodes are desired, a smaller number should be used.

Note: The number of inodes that will be created in each cylinder group of a file system is approximately the size of the cylinder group divided by the number of bytes per inode, up to a limit of 2048 inodes per cylinder group. If the size of the cylinder group is large enough to reach this limit, the default number of bytes per inode will be increased.

Prototype File Structure

A prototype file describes the initial file structure of a new file system. The file contains tokens separated by spaces or newline characters. It cannot contain comments.

The first token is the name of a file to be copied onto block zero as the bootstrap program (usually /etc/BOOT). If the file name is "", no bootstrap code is placed on the device. The second token is a number specifying the number of DEV_BSIZE blocks in the file system.

The next three tokens specify the mode, user ID, and group ID of the root directory of the new file system, followed by the initial contents of the root directory in the format described for a directory file below, and terminated with a $ token.

A file specification consists of four tokens giving the name, mode, user ID, and group ID, and an initial contents field. The syntax of the initial contents field depends on the mode.

A name token is a file name that is valid for the file system. The root directory does not have a name token.

A mode token is a 6-character string. The first character specifies the type of the file. It can be one of the following characters:

-: Regular file
b: Block special file
c: Character special file
d: Directory
l: Symbolic link
L: Hard link

The second character of a mode token is either u or - to specify set-user-ID mode or not. The third character of a mode token is either g or - to specify the set-group-ID mode or not. The rest of a mode token is a three-digit octal number giving the owner, group, and other read, write, and execute permissions (see chmod(1)).

The user-ID and group-ID tokens define the owner of the file. These values can be specified numerically or with symbolic names that appear in the current password and group databases.

Regular file. The initial contents field is the path name of an existing file in the current file system whose contents and size are copied to the new file.

Block or character special file. The initial contents field is two numeric tokens that specify the major and minor device numbers.

Directory file. The initial contents field is a list of file specifications for the entries in the directory. The list is terminated with a $ token. Directories can be nested. For each directory, the mkfs command automatically makes the . and .. entries.

Symbolic link. The initial contents field is a path name that is used as the path to which the symbolic link should point.

Hard link. The initial contents field is a path name that is used as the name of a file within the new file system to which the entry should be linked. The mode, user-ID and group-ID tokens of this entry are ignored; they are taken from the target of the link. The target of the link must be listed before the entry specifying the link. Hard links to directories are not permitted.

With the exception of the permissions field of the mode token (which is always an octal number), all numeric fields can be specified in hexadecimal (using a leading 0x), octal (using a leading 0), or decimal.

Here is a sample prototype specification. The indentation clarifies the directory recursion.

/etc/BOOT 
12288 
d--555 bin  bin 
sbin    d--755 bin  bin 
        init     ---555 bin  bin /sbin/init 
        savecore ---555 bin  bin /sbin/savecore 
        $ 
dev     d--555 bin  bin 
        b0       b--640 root sys 0 0x0e0000 
        c0       c--640 root sys 4 0x0e0000 
        $ 
etc     d--755 bin  bin 
        init     l--777 bin  bin /sbin/init 
        passwd   ---444 bin  bin /etc/passwd 
        group    ---444 bin  bin /etc/group 
        $ 
usr     d--755 bin  bin 
        bin     d--755 bin  bin 
                sh       ---555 bin  bin  /usr/bin/sh 
                rsh      L--555 bin  bin  /usr/bin/sh 
                su       -u-555 root bin  /usr/bin/su 
                mailq    l--777 bin  bin  /usr/sbin/sendmail 
                $ 
        sbin    d--755 bin  bin 
                sendmail -ug555 root  mail /usr/sbin/sendmail 
                $ 
        $ 
$ 

Access Control Lists

Every file with one or more optional ACL entries consumes an extra (continuation) inode. If you anticipate significant use of ACLs on a new file system, you can allocate more inodes by reducing the value of nbpi appropriately. The small default value typically causes allocation of many more inodes than are actually necessary, even with ACLs. To evaluate your need for extra inodes, run the bdf -i command on existing file systems. For more information on access control lists, see acl(5).

EXAMPLES

Execute the mkfs command to create a 32MB HFS file system on the non-LVM disk /dev/dsk/c1t2d0:

mkfs -F hfs /dev/dsk/c1t2d0 32768 

Display the command that was used to construct the file system on /dev/dsk/c1t2d0:

mkfs -F hfs -m /dev/dsk/c1t2d0 

Create an HFS file system within a logical volume /dev/vg01/my_lvol of a size equal to the size of my_lvol:

mkfs -F hfs /dev/vg01/my_lvol 

WARNINGS

The old -F option, from prior releases of mkfs(1M), is no longer supported.

mkfs_hfs(1M) cannot be executed specifying creation of a file system on a whole disk if that disk was previously used as an LVM disk. If you wish to do this, use mediainit(1) to reinitialize the disk first.

The -o largefile option should be used with care, since older applications will not react correctly when confronted with large files.

AUTHOR

mkfs was developed by HP and the University of California, Berkeley.

FILES

/var/adm/sbtab: List of locations of the superblocks for the created file system. The mkfs command appends entries to this file.

STANDARDS CONFORMANCE

mkfs: SVID3