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

NAME

     bless -- set volume bootability and startup disk options

SYNOPSIS

     bless -help

     bless -folder directory [-folder9 directory] [-mount directory] [-bootinfo file] [-bootBlocks | -bootBlockFile file] [-save9] [-saveX]
	   [-use9] [-system file] [-systemfile file] [-label name | -labelfile file] [-openfolder directory] [-setBoot] [-quiet | -verbose]

     bless -device device [-format [fstype] [-fsargs args] [-label name | -labelfile file]] [-bootBlockFile file] [-mount directory]
	   [-wrapper file] [-startupfile file] [-system file] [-setBoot] [-quiet | -verbose]

     bless -info [directory] [-getBoot] [-bootBlocks] [-plist] [-quiet | -verbose] [-version]

DESCRIPTION

     bless is used to set volume bootability characteristics for PowerPC-based Macintoshes. It can also modify Open Firmware to select a different
     device to boot off of.  bless has 3 modes of execution: Folder Mode, Device Mode, and Info Mode.  Folder Mode allows you to select a folder
     on a mounted volume to act as the ``blessed'' system folder, and optionally update Open Firmware to boot from that volume.  Device Mode is
     normally only used to format and setup a volume for the first time. Info Mode will print out the currently-blessed folder(s) of a volume, or
     if no mountpoint is specified, the volume that OF is set to boot from.

     Additionally, -help can be used to display the command-line usage summary.

   FOLDER MODE
     Folder Mode has the following options:
     -folder directory	    A blessed Mac OS X/Darwin system folder, containing a BootX secondary loader for New World machines.
     -folder9 directory     A Mac OS 9/Classic system folder. If both -folder and -folder9 are given, preference can be given to boot into Mac OS
			    9 by also using the -use9 flag.
     -mount directory	    In lieu of specifying folders to bless, -mount can be given, and the pre-existing blessed folders are used.
     -bootinfo file	    Create a BootX file in the Mac OS X/Darwin system folder using file as a source.
     -bootBlocks	    Set the boot blocks on the volume. This is required for booting Mac OS 9. Boot blocks can be retrieved from the System
			    file in the blessed Mac OS 9 system folder, or can be specified more directly using the -bootBlockFile or -system
			    flags.
     -bootBlockFile file    Extract boot blocks from file . The first 1024 bytes are read from the data fork of that file.
     -save9		    Used if no -folder9 flag was given, but if the pre-existing Mac OS 9 system folder should be preserved.
     -saveX		    Used if no -folder flag was given, but if the pre-existing Mac OS X/Darwin system folder should be preserved.
     -use9		    Used if both -folder and -folder9 were given, but Mac OS 9 should be the default for the volume.
     -system file	    Extract boot blocks from the file System file, using the Carbon resource manager. This will fail under Darwin, where
			    Carbon is not present.
     -systemfile file	    Data fork System file to place in blessed System Folder
     -label name	    Render a text label used in the OpenFirmware-based OS picker
     -labelfile file	    Use a pre-rendered label used for the OpenFirmware-based OS picker
     -openfolder directory  Specify a folder to be opened in the Finder when the volume is attached
     -setBoot		    Set the system to boot off the specified partition. This is implemented in a platform-specific manner. On Darwin PPC,
			    the Open Firmware boot-device variable is modified. On Darwin x86, the MBR partition map is adjusted to mark the spec-
			    ified partition as active
     -setOF		    Set the boot-device Open Firmware variable to boot off the volume containing. This option is deprecated in favor of
			    the more generic -setBoot option.
     -quiet		    Do not print any output
     -verbose		    Print verbose output

   DEVICE MODE
     Device Mode has the following options:
     -device device	    Open the block device device . No volumes should be mounted from device .
     -format [fstype]	    Format the device using the fstype filesystem, or if it is not given, default to HFS+ with an HFS wrapper.
     -fsargs arg	    Additional arguments to newfs for the given filesystem
     -label name	    Give the filesystem the label while formatting, or set an OF-cased OS picker label
     -labelfile file	    Use a pre-rendered label used for the OpenFirmware-based OS picker name (in UTF-8 encoding)
     -bootBlockFile file    Extract boot blocks from file . The first 1024 bytes are read from the data fork of that file.
     -mount directory	    Use directory as a temporary mount point for the HFS wrapper.
     -wrapper file	    Mount the wrapper on -mount and write file into the wrapper as the default System file.
     -system file	    Override the file specifications for -bootBlockFile and -wrapper and use this file instead for both those functions.
     -xcoff file	    Add the file as the HFS+ StartupFile, and update the partition map to reflect it's location on disk. This is necessary
			    for Old World booting. This option is deprecated in favor of the more generic -startupfile option
     -setBoot		    Set the system to boot off the specified partition. This is implemented in a platform-specific manner. On Darwin PPC,
			    the Open Firmware boot-device variable is modified. On Darwin x86, the MBR partition map is adjusted to mark the spec-
			    ified partition as active
     -setOF		    Set the boot-device Open Firmware variable to boot off the volume containing. This option is deprecated in favor of
			    the more generic -setBoot option.
     -startupfile file	    Add the file as the HFS+ StartupFile, and update other information on disk as appropriate for the startup file type.
     -quiet		    Do not print any output
     -verbose		    Print verbose output

   INFO MODE
     Info Mode has the following options:
     -info [directory]	    Print out the blessed system folder for directory . If directory is not specified, print information for the current
			    boot-device (which may not necessarily be '/' .
     -setBoot		    Print out which device will be used on next boot, according to the boot-device Open Firmware variable. This option
			    will take into account that OF might be pointing to an auxiliary booter partition, and will print out the correspond-
			    ing root partition for those cases.
     -bootBlocks	    Print out salient fields from the boot blocks of the volume.
     -plist		    Output all information in Property List (.plist) format, suitable for parsing by CoreFoundation. This is most useful
			    when bless is executed from another program and its standard output must be parsed.
     -quiet		    Do not print any output
     -verbose		    Print verbose output
     -version		    Print bless version and exit immediately

FILES

     /usr/standalone/ppc/bootx.bootinfo  Secondary loader with XML headers, used with -bootinfo flag. Used for booting New World PPC-based Macin-
					 toshes
     /System/Library/CoreServices	 Typical blessed folder for Mac OS X and Darwin

EXAMPLES

   FOLDER MODE
     To bless a volume with only Mac OS 9:

	   bless -folder9 "/Volumes/Mac OS 9/System Folder" -bootBlockFile "/usr/share/misc/bootblockdata"

     To bless a volume with only Mac OS X or Darwin, and create the BootX file:

	   bless -folder "/Volumes/Mac OS X/System/Library/CoreServices" -bootinfo "/Volumes/Mac OS X/usr/standalone/ppc/bootx.bootinfo"

     To set a volume containing either Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X to be the active volume:

	   bless -mount "/Volumes/Mac OS" -setBoot

   INFO MODE
     To gather information about the currently selected volume (as determined by Open Firmware), suitable for piping to a program capable of pars-
     ing Property Lists:

	   bless -info -plist -bootBlocks

SEE ALSO

     mount(8), newfs(8), nvram(8)

Mac OS X							  August 3, 2003							  Mac OS X