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

NAME

     mdconfig -- configure and enable memory disks

SYNOPSIS

     mdconfig -a -t type [-n] [-o [no]option] ... [-f file] [-s size] [-S sectorsize] [-u unit] [-x sectors/track] [-y heads/cylinder]
     mdconfig -d -u unit [-o [no]force]
     mdconfig -r -u unit -s size [-o [no]force]
     mdconfig -l [-n] [-v] [-f file] [-u unit]
     mdconfig file

DESCRIPTION

     The mdconfig utility configures and enables md(4) devices.

     Options indicate an action to be performed:

     -a      Attach a memory disk.  This will configure and attach a memory disk with the parameters specified and attach it to the system.  If
	     the -u unit option is not provided, the newly created device name will be printed on stdout.

     -d      Detach a memory disk from the system and release all resources.

     -r      Resize a memory disk.

     -t type
	     Select the type of the memory disk.

	     malloc  Storage for this type of memory disk is allocated with malloc(9).	This limits the size to the malloc bucket limit in the
		     kernel.  If the -o reserve option is not set, creating and filling a large malloc-backed memory disk is a very easy way to
		     panic a system.

	     vnode   A file specified with -f file becomes the backing store for this memory disk.

	     swap    Storage for this type of memory disk is allocated from buffer memory.  Pages get pushed out to swap when the system is under
		     memory pressure, otherwise they stay in the operating memory.  Using swap backing is generally preferred instead of using
		     malloc backing.

	     null    Bitsink; all writes do nothing, all reads return zeroes.

     -f file
	     Filename to use for the vnode type memory disk.  The -a and -t vnode options are implied if not specified.

     -l      List configured devices.  If given with -u, display details about that particular device.	If given with -f file, display md(4)
	     device names of which file is used as the backing store.  If both of -u and -f options are specified, display devices which match the
	     two conditions.  If the -v option is specified, show all details.

     -n      When printing md(4) device names, print only the unit number without the md(4) prefix.

     -s size
	     Size of the memory disk.  Size is the number of 512 byte sectors unless suffixed with a b, k, m, g, or t which denotes byte, kilo-
	     byte, megabyte, gigabyte and terabyte respectively.  The -a and -t swap options are implied if not specified.

     -S sectorsize
	     Sectorsize to use for the memory disk, in bytes.

     -x sectors/track
	     See the description of the -y option below.

     -y heads/cylinder
	     For malloc or vnode backed devices, the -x and -y options can be used to specify a synthetic geometry.  This is useful for construct-
	     ing bootable images for later download to other devices.

     -o [no]option
	     Set or reset options.

	     [no]async
		     For vnode backed devices: avoid IO_SYNC for increased performance but at the risk of deadlocking the entire kernel.

	     [no]reserve
		     Allocate and reserve all needed storage from the start, rather than as needed.

	     [no]cluster
		     Enable clustering on this disk.

	     [no]compress
		     Enable/disable compression features to reduce memory usage.

	     [no]force
		     Disable/enable extra sanity checks to prevent the user from doing something that might adversely affect the system.

	     [no]readonly
		     Enable/disable readonly mode.

     -u unit
	     Request a specific unit number or device name for the md(4) device instead of automatic allocation.  If a device name is specified,
	     it must be start with ``md'' followed by the unit number.

     The last form, mdconfig file, is provided for convenience as an abbreviation of mdconfig -a -t vnode -f file.

EXAMPLES

     Create a 4 megabyte malloc(9) backed memory disk.	The name of the allocated unit will be printed on stdout, such as ``md3'':

	   mdconfig -a -t malloc -s 4m

     Create a disk named /dev/md4 with /tmp/boot.flp as backing storage:

	   mdconfig -a -t vnode -f /tmp/boot.flp -u md4

     Detach and free all resources used by /dev/md4:

	   mdconfig -d -u md4

     Create a 128MByte swap backed disk, initialize an ffs(7) file system on it, and mount it on /tmp:

	   mdconfig -a -t swap -s 128M -u md10
	   newfs -U /dev/md10
	   mount /dev/md10 /tmp
	   chmod 1777 /tmp

     Create a 5MB file-backed disk (-a and -t vnode are implied):

	   dd if=/dev/zero of=somebackingfile bs=1k count=5k
	   mdconfig -f somebackingfile -u md0
	   bsdlabel -w md0 auto
	   newfs md0c
	   mount /dev/md0c /mnt

     Create an md(4) device out of an ISO 9660 CD image file (-a and -t vnode are implied), using the first available md(4) device, and then mount
     the new memory disk:

	   mount -t cd9660 /dev/`mdconfig -f cdimage.iso` /mnt

     Create a file-backed device from a hard disk image that begins with 512K of raw header information.  gnop(8) is used to skip over the header
     information, positioning md1.nop to the start of the filesystem in the image.

	   mdconfig -f diskimage.img -u md1
	   gnop create -o 512K md1
	   mount /dev/md1.nop /mnt

SEE ALSO

     md(4), ffs(7), bsdlabel(8), fdisk(8), mdmfs(8), malloc(9)

HISTORY

     The mdconfig utility first appeared in FreeBSD 5.0 as a cleaner replacement for the vn(4) and vnconfig(8) combo.

AUTHORS

     The mdconfig utility was written by Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@FreeBSD.org>.

BSD
								 November 30, 2013							       BSD