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

NAME

     newfs_apfs -- construct a new APFS volume

SYNOPSIS

     newfs_apfs [-o options] [-i] [-b block-size] [-s volume-size | -q volume-quota -r volume-reserve] [-v volume-name] [-E | -P] [-R role]
		special
     newfs_apfs -C [-o options] [-i] [-b block-size] special
     newfs_apfs -A [-o options] [-i] [-s volume-size | -q volume-quota -r volume-reserve] [-v volume-name] [-E | -P] [-R role] special
     newfs_apfs [-o options] [-i] [-s volume-size | -q volume-quota -r volume-reserve] [-v volume-name] [-E | -P] [-R role] special

DESCRIPTION

     The newfs_apfs command creates a new APFS container on the device and/or adds a new APFS volume to a container.

     The first, more traditional, form of newfs_apfs formats the given special as a container with a single volume inside it.  The second form
     creates a container only, with no volumes.  The third form is used to non-destructively add additional volumes inside an existing container.
     The fourth form reformats an existing volume by effectively deleting and re-creating it; in this usage (only) special indicates a volume
     inside the container.

     The special parameter should be the path to a disk device node, such as /dev/disk1s2, although can be specified as simply disk1s2.

     The options are as follows:

     -b block-size	The block size of the container.  All volumes within this container will use this block size.  The default is 4096 bytes.

     -o options 	Additional (undocumented) formatting options.

     -i 		Creates a case-insensitive volume. This is the default on macOS.

     -e 		Creates a case-sensitive volume.

     -U uid		The UID of the root volume. Defaults to current UID.

     -G uid		The GID of the root volume. Defaults to current GID.

     -q volume-quota	Places a quota, or upper limit, on the size of the volume.  If specified then no more than this much space will be used
			for its content, even if there is additional free space in the container; however it is not guaranteed that the entire
			quota will always be available.  By default a volume has no assigned quota.

     -r volume-reserve	Reserves an amount of space for this volume.  If specified it is guaranteed that at least this much space will be
			available for its content; the volume may also grow beyond this size (up to its quota limit, if any) if additional free
			space in the container.  By default a volume has no assigned reserve.

     -s volume-size	The fixed size of the volume.  If specified then the volume is guaranteed that exactly this much space will be available
			for its content.  Setting -s is equivalant to setting both -q and -r to that same value.  If not specified then the
			available space is dynamic and determined by the usage of other volumes within the same container (space-sharing).

     -v volume-name	The name of the volume.  The default is "untitled".

     -A 		Add a volume to an existing container.	There is a limit to the number of volumes that may reside inside a container.

     -C 		Create a container only, with no volume.  newfs_apfs -A may be used later to format volumes inside that container.

     -E 		Enable volume encryption.  The volume metadata is also encrypted.

     -F special 	Format as a Fusion device (with the secondary device specified here).

     -R role		Set the OS "role" of the volume within the container.  The role may be one of the following characters:
			  b   PreBoot - will contain information used to help boot System volumes
			  r   Recovery - will contain the RecoveryOS
			  v   VM - will contain swapfiles and hibernate image

DIAGNOSTICS

     The newfs_apfs utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

EXAMPLES

     The following formats a new container and a volume named "Macintosh" on the /dev/disk1s2 device:
	   newfs_apfs -v Macintosh disk1s2

     And then this adds another volume, named "Data" with a fixed size of 100 GB, to that container:
	   newfs_apfs -v Data -s 100g -A disk1s2

SEE ALSO

     mount_apfs(8)

HISTORY

     The newfs_apfs utility first appeared in OS X 10.12.

Mac OS X							September 15, 2015							  Mac OS X