bsd man page for newfs

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

NAME
       newfs - construct a new file system

SYNOPSIS
       /sbin/newfs [ -N ] [ -m free-gap ] [ -n free-modulus ] [ -i bytes ] [ -s size ] [ -T disk-type ] special

DESCRIPTION
       Newfs is a ``friendly'' front-end to the mkfs(8) program.  Newfs(8) will normally read the disklabel from the drive to determine the parti-
       tion sizes.  If the driver for the disk does not support disklabels the -T option must be used to force a search of /etc/disktab for parti-
       tion  information  about  drive-type.   Newfs  calculates the appropriate parameters to use in calling mkfs, then builds the file system by
       forking mkfs.

       -N causes the mkfs command which would be executed to be printed out without actually creating the file system.	The disk specified by spe-
       cial must be online though so that newfs can read the disklabel.

       -m  allows the specification of the block interleaving of the free list.  If not specified or outside the range 1 thru 32 then a value of 2
       is used.

       -n parameter is the freelist modulus (when the -m pattern repeats) and is calculated by newfs to be 1 cylinder in size by default.

       -i specifies how many bytes per inode to assume when calculating how many inodes to allocate.  The default is 4096  bytes  per  inode.	If
       this  results  in  too  few  inodes  being allocated (there is an absolute maximum of 65500) then decrease the bytes number (which must lie
       between 512 and 65536).

       -T must be used if the disk specified by special has not been labeled with the disklabel(8) program.  In this case  disk-type  is  used	by
       getdisklabel(3) when searching /etc/disktab.  This option is used when the underlying device driver does not support disklabels.  Care must
       be taken that the contents of /etc/disktab match the partition tables in the kernel.

       -s specifies how many sectors the file system is to contain.  There are two sectors per file system block, therefore size should  be  even.
       This  parameter	must  be less than or equal to the partition size (as determined from the disklabel or /etc/disktab).  An error is printed
       and no action is taken if the partition size is 0 or too large.

	    NOTE: Mkfs deals in units of filesystem blocks not sectors.  Newfs uses sectors.

FILES
       /etc/disktab   disk geometry and partition information
       mkfs to actually build the file system

SEE ALSO
       getdisklabel(3), disklabel(8), disktab(5), diskpart(8), fs(5), fsck(8), mkfs(8)

BUGS
       newfs(8) no longer places boot blocks on the filesystem.  That duty has been moved to the disklabel(8) program.	If you must place  a  boot
       block on a disk whose driver does not support disklabels use dd(1).

4.2 Berkeley Distribution					  April 12, 1996							  NEWFS(8)