NEWFS(8)						    BSD System Manager's Manual 						  NEWFS(8)

NAME

     newfs -- construct a new UFS1/UFS2 file system

SYNOPSIS

     newfs [-EJNUln] [-L volname] [-O filesystem-type] [-S sector-size] [-T disktype] [-a maxcontig] [-b block-size]
	   [-c blocks-per-cylinder-group] [-d max-extent-size] [-e maxbpg] [-f frag-size] [-g avgfilesize] [-h avgfpdir] [-i bytes]
	   [-m free-space] [-o optimization] [-p partition] [-r reserved] [-s size] special

DESCRIPTION

     The newfs utility is used to initialize and clear file systems before first use.  The newfs utility builds a file system on the specified
     special file.  (We often refer to the ``special file'' as the ``disk'', although the special file need not be a physical disk.  In fact, it
     need not even be special.)  Typically the defaults are reasonable, however newfs has numerous options to allow the defaults to be selectively
     overridden.

     The following options define the general layout policies:

     -E      Erase the content of the disk before making the filesystem.  The reserved area in front of the superblock (for bootcode) will not be
	     erased.

	     This is a relevant option for flash based storage devices that use wear levelling algorithms.

	     NB: Erasing may take as long time as writing every sector on the disk.

     -J      Enable journaling on the new file system via gjournal.  See gjournal(8) for details.

     -L volname
	     Add a volume label to the new file system.

     -N      Cause the file system parameters to be printed out without really creating the file system.

     -O filesystem-type
	     Use 1 to specify that a UFS1 format file system be built; use 2 to specify that a UFS2 format file system be built.  The default for-
	     mat is UFS2.

     -T disktype
	     For backward compatibility.

     -U      Enable soft updates on the new file system.

     -a maxcontig
	     Specify the maximum number of contiguous blocks that will be laid out before forcing a rotational delay.  The default value is 16.
	     See tunefs(8) for more details on how to set this option.

     -b block-size
	     The block size of the file system, in bytes.  It must be a power of 2.  The default size is 16384 bytes, and the smallest allowable
	     size is 4096 bytes.  The optimal block:fragment ratio is 8:1.  Other ratios are possible, but are not recommended, and may produce
	     poor results.

     -c blocks-per-cylinder-group
	     The number of blocks per cylinder group in a file system.	The default is to compute the maximum allowed by the other parameters.
	     This value is dependent on a number of other parameters, in particular the block size and the number of bytes per inode.

     -d max-extent-size
	     The file system may choose to store large files using extents.  This parameter specifies the largest extent size that may be used.
	     It is presently limited to its default value which is 16 times the file system blocksize.

     -e maxbpg
	     Indicate the maximum number of blocks any single file can allocate out of a cylinder group before it is forced to begin allocating
	     blocks from another cylinder group.  The default is about one quarter of the total blocks in a cylinder group.  See tunefs(8) for
	     more details on how to set this option.

     -f frag-size
	     The fragment size of the file system in bytes.  It must be a power of two ranging in value between blocksize/8 and blocksize.  The
	     default is 2048 bytes.

     -g avgfilesize
	     The expected average file size for the file system.

     -h avgfpdir
	     The expected average number of files per directory on the file system.

     -i bytes
	     Specify the density of inodes in the file system.	The default is to create an inode for every (4 * frag-size) bytes of data space.
	     If fewer inodes are desired, a larger number should be used; to create more inodes a smaller number should be given.  One inode is
	     required for each distinct file, so this value effectively specifies the average file size on the file system.

     -l      Enable multilabel MAC on the new file system.

     -m free-space
	     The percentage of space reserved from normal users; the minimum free space threshold.  The default value used is defined by MINFREE
	     from <ufs/ffs/fs.h>, currently 8%.  See tunefs(8) for more details on how to set this option.

     -n      Do not create a .snap directory on the new file system.  The resulting file system will not support snapshot generation, so dump(8)
	     in live mode and background fsck(8) will not function properly.  The traditional fsck(8) and offline dump(8) will work on the file
	     system.  This option is intended primarily for memory or vnode-backed file systems that do not require dump(8) or fsck(8) support.

     -o optimization
	     (space or time).  The file system can either be instructed to try to minimize the time spent allocating blocks, or to try to minimize
	     the space fragmentation on the disk.  If the value of minfree (see above) is less than 8%, the default is to optimize for space; if
	     the value of minfree is greater than or equal to 8%, the default is to optimize for time.	See tunefs(8) for more details on how to
	     set this option.

     -p partition
	     The partition name (a..h) you want to use in case the underlying image is a file, so you don't have access to individual partitions
	     through the filesystem.  Can also be used with a device, e.g.  newfs -p f /dev/da1s3 is equivalent to newfs /dev/da1s3f.

     -r reserved
	     The size, in sectors, of reserved space at the end of the partition specified in special.	This space will not be occupied by the
	     file system; it can be used by other consumers such as geom(4).  Defaults to 0.

     -s size
	     The size of the file system in sectors.  This value defaults to the size of the raw partition specified in special less the reserved
	     space at its end (see -r).  A size of 0 can also be used to choose the default value.  A valid size value cannot be larger than the
	     default one, which means that the file system cannot extend into the reserved space.

     The following options override the standard sizes for the disk geometry.  Their default values are taken from the disk label.  Changing these
     defaults is useful only when using newfs to build a file system whose raw image will eventually be used on a different type of disk than the
     one on which it is initially created (for example on a write-once disk).  Note that changing any of these values from their defaults will
     make it impossible for fsck(8) to find the alternate superblocks if the standard superblock is lost.

     -S sector-size
	     The size of a sector in bytes (almost never anything but 512).

EXAMPLES

	   newfs /dev/ad3s1a

     Creates a new ufs file system on ad3s1a.  The newfs utility will use a block size of 16384 bytes, a fragment size of 2048 bytes and the
     largest possible number of blocks per cylinders group.  These values tend to produce better performance for most applications than the his-
     torical defaults (8192 byte block size and 1024 byte fragment size).  This large fragment size may lead to much wasted space on file systems
     that contain many small files.

SEE ALSO

     fdformat(1), geom(4), disktab(5), fs(5), bsdlabel(8), camcontrol(8), dump(8), dumpfs(8), fsck(8), gjournal(8), mount(8), tunefs(8), gvinum(8)

     M. McKusick, W. Joy, S. Leffler, and R. Fabry, "A Fast File System for UNIX", ACM Transactions on Computer Systems 2, 3, pp 181-197, August
     1984, (reprinted in the BSD System Manager's Manual).

HISTORY

     The newfs utility appeared in 4.2BSD.

BSD
								  March 21, 2008							       BSD