NAME
vnconfig
—
configure and enable vnode
disks
SYNOPSIS
vnconfig |
[-cdeguvTZ ] [-s
options] [-r
options] [-S
value] special_file
[regular_file] [feature] |
vnconfig |
-a [-cdeguv ]
[-s options]
[-r options]
[-f config_file] |
vnconfig |
-l [special_file
...] |
DESCRIPTION
Thevnconfig
command configures, enables and lists vnode
pseudo disk devices. The first form of the command will associate the special
file special_file with the regular file
regular_file allowing the latter to be accessed as
though it were a disk. Hence a regular file within the filesystem can be used
for swapping or can contain a filesystem that is mounted in the name space. If
you want to use swap backing store for your device instead of a file, you can
leave regular_file out and specify the size of the block
device with the -S
option.
Options indicate an action to be performed:
-a
- Read a command file and performs the specified actions for each device/file pair.
-c
- Configure the device. If successful, references to
special_file will access the contents of
regular_file.
A
vn
device is autocloned if special_file is given as vn, the name of the resulting device is printed on stdout. -d
- Disable (if possible) the specified feature.
-e
- Configure the device and enables any feature that
was specified. If no feature was specified,
-e
is the same as-c
. -f
config_file- Specify configuration file. Default is /etc/vntab.
-g
- Fiddle global options.
-l
special_file ...- List the
vn
devices and indicate which ones are in use. If a special_file list is given, only those devices will be described. -r
options- Reset options, which is a comma separated string of
options. The list of allowed options and their meanings are:
reserve
- Pre-reserve the blocks underlying the file or swap backing store.
Currently only works for swap backing store. This option also disables
on-the-fly freeing of the underlying backing store (for example, when
you remove a large file). Use this option if you wish to avoid
long-term fragmentation of the backing store. Also note that when this
option is used, the initial contents of the backing store may contain
garbage rather than zeros. It may even be possible to recover the
prior contents of a swap-backed
vn
across a reboot if thevn
device is configured before any swap is allocated by the system. follow
- Debug flow in the vn(4) driver.
debug
- Debug data in the vn(4) driver.
io
- Debug I/O in the vn(4) driver.
all
- Turn on all options.
none
- Turn off all options.
-s
options- Set options, which is a comma separated string of
options. The list of allowed options and their meanings are the same as
for the
-r
option. -S
value{k
,m
,g
,t
}- If no regular file is specified,
vn
will use swap for backing store. This option specifies the size of the device. For example, ‘23m’ for 23 megabytes. In the absence of a size modifier,m
is implied. Thevn
device will round the size up to a machine page boundary. Filesystems up to 7.9 terabytes are supported. When specified along with a regular file, this option overrides the regular file's size insofar asvn
is concerned. -T
- When a regular file is specified,
vnconfig
willftruncate
() the file to length 0 first. Normally you should also specify the-S
option to set the size of the file. This option also creates the file if it did not previously exist. This option is only meaningful if the-S
option has been specified. -Z
- When a regular file is specified,
vnconfig
will zero the contents of the file to ensure that all blocks have been allocated by the filesystem. This option is only meaningful if the-S
option has been specified. -u
- Disable and ``unconfigure'' the device.
-v
- Print messages to stdout describing actions taken.
If no action option is given, -c
is
assumed.
The feature argument specifies a feature
that can be enabled via the -e
option:
swap
- Swapping is enabled on the special file. See swapon(2).
mountro=
mount_point- The special file is mounted read-only on mount_point. See mount(2).
mountrw=
mount_point- The special file is mounted read-write on mount_point. See mount(2).
mount=
mount_point- Same as
mountrw=
mount_point.
A configuration file contains one line per device/file pair in the form:
special_file regular_file [feature]
where fields are separated by white space. The previously described action options serve to configure, enable, disable or unconfigure all devices in the configuration file.
FILES
- /etc/vntab
- default configuration file for
-a
option
EXAMPLES
vnconfig vn
/tmp/diskimage
Configures an autocloned vnode disk, the name of the resulting device is printed, e.g. vn4.
vnconfig vn0
/tmp/diskimage
Configures the vnode disk vn0.
vnconfig -e vn0 /var/swapfile
swap
Configures vn0 and enables swapping on it.
vnconfig -c -v /dev/vn0
cdimage.iso
mount -t cd9660 -o ro /dev/vn0
/mnt
Mount an ISO9660 CD image file.
umount /mnt
vnconfig -u vn0
Unmount the CD image file.
vnconfig -d vn0 myfilesystem
mount=/mnt
Unmounts (disables) vn0.
vnconfig -ae
Configures and enables all devices specified in /etc/vntab.
vnconfig -c vn0
somebackingfile
disklabel -r -w vn0s0
auto
disklabel -e vn0s0
Is an example of how to configure a file-backed
vn
disk with a disk label and to initialize and then
edit the label. Once you create the label, you can partition your
vn
disk and, for example, create a filesystem on one
of the partitions. If you are using a file as backing store, it may be
possible to recover your vn
disk after a crash by
vnconfig
'ing the same file again and using the
vn
configuration already stored in the file rather
than relabeling and recreating the filesystem. It is even possible to
fsck(8) the vn
partitions that previously
contained filesystems.
vnconfig -e -s reserve -S 400m
vn1
disklabel -r -w vn1s0
auto
newfs /dev/vn1s0
mount /dev/vn1s0
/usr/obj
Is an example of a swap-backed vn
disk
configuration. This example assumes that you have at least 400 megabytes of
swap free (and hopefully much more). The swap space is pre-reserved in order
to maintain maximum performance. We then label the disk, newfs it, and mount
it as /usr/obj. Swap-backed
vn
devices are recoverable after a crash if you (A)
use the reserve
option, and if (B) the same swap is
reserved as was the last time, meaning that such
vnconfig
's would have to be run in your
rc.local(8). In general, though, you only use swap-backed
vn
devices to hold information you don't mind losing
on every reboot.