.\" Copyright (c) 1993 University of Utah. .\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1989, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" Copyright (c) 2000 .\" Poul-Henning Kamp All rights reserved. .\" .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by .\" the Systems Programming Group of the University of Utah Computer .\" Science Department. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software .\" must display the following acknowledgement: .\" This product includes software developed by the University of .\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)vnconfig.8 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93 .\" from: src/usr.sbin/vnconfig/vnconfig.8,v 1.19 2000/12/27 15:30:29 .\" .\" $FreeBSD$ .\" .Dd November 9, 2007 .Dt MDCONFIG 8 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm mdconfig .Nd configure and enable memory disks .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm .Fl a .Fl t Ar type .Op Fl n .Oo Fl o Oo Cm no Oc Ns Ar option Oc ... .Op Fl f Ar file .Op Fl s Ar size .Op Fl S Ar sectorsize .Op Fl u Ar unit .Op Fl x Ar sectors/track .Op Fl y Ar heads/cyl .Nm .Fl d .Fl u Ar unit .Nm .Fl l .Op Fl n .Op Fl u Ar unit .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm utility configures and enables .Xr md 4 devices. .Pp Options indicate an action to be performed: .Bl -tag -width indent .It Fl a Attach a memory disk. This will configure and attach a memory disk with the parameters specified and attach it to the system. .It Fl d Detach a memory disk from the system and release all resources. .It Fl t Ar type Select the type of the memory disk. .Bl -tag -width "preload" .It Cm malloc Storage for this type of memory disk is allocated with .Xr malloc 9 . This limits the size to the malloc bucket limit in the kernel. If the .Fl o Cm reserve option is not set, creating and filling a large malloc-backed memory disk is a very easy way to panic a system. .It Cm vnode A file specified with .Fl f Ar file becomes the backingstore for this memory disk. .It Cm swap Swap space is used to back this memory disk. .El .It Fl f Ar file Filename to use for the vnode type memory disk. Options .Fl a and .Fl t Ar vnode are implied if not specified. .It Fl l List configured devices. If given with .Fl u , display details about that particular device. .It Fl n When printing md device names, print only the unit number without the md prefix. .It Fl s Ar size Size of the memory disk. .Ar Size is the number of 512 byte sectors unless suffixed with a .Cm b , k , m , g , or .Cm t which denotes byte, kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte and terabyte respectively. Options .Fl a and .Fl t Ar swap are implied if not specified. .It Fl S Ar sectorsize Sectorsize to use for malloc backed device. .It Fl x Ar sectors/track See the description of the .Fl y option below. .It Fl y Ar heads/cylinder For .Cm malloc or .Cm vnode backed devices, the .Fl x and .Fl y options can be used to specify a synthetic geometry. This is useful for constructing bootable images for later download to other devices. .It Fl o Oo Cm no Oc Ns Ar option Set or reset options. .Bl -tag -width indent .It Oo Cm no Oc Ns Cm async For .Cm vnode backed devices: avoid .Dv IO_SYNC for increased performance but at the risk of deadlocking the entire kernel. .It Oo Cm no Oc Ns Cm reserve Allocate and reserve all needed storage from the start, rather than as needed. .It Oo Cm no Oc Ns Cm cluster Enable clustering on this disk. .It Oo Cm no Oc Ns Cm compress Enable/Disable compression features to reduce memory usage. .It Oo Cm no Oc Ns Cm force Disable/Enable extra sanity checks to prevent the user from doing something that might adversely affect the system. .It Oo Cm no Oc Ns Cm readonly Enable/Disable readonly mode. .El .It Fl u Ar unit Request a specific unit number for the .Xr md 4 device instead of automatic allocation. .El .Sh EXAMPLES To create a 4 megabyte .Xr malloc 9 backed memory disk. The name of the allocated unit will be output on stdout like .Dq Li md3 : .Pp .Dl mdconfig -a -t malloc -s 4m .Pp To create a disk named .Pa /dev/md4 with .Pa /tmp/boot.flp as backing: .Pp .Dl mdconfig -a -t vnode -f /tmp/boot.flp -u 4 .Pp To detach and free all resources used by .Pa /dev/md4 : .Pp .Dl mdconfig -d -u 4 .Pp To create and mount a 128MByte swap backed file system on .Pa /tmp : .Bd -literal -offset indent mdconfig -a -t swap -s 128M -u 10 newfs -U /dev/md10 mount /dev/md10 /tmp chmod 1777 /tmp .Ed .Pp To create a 5MB file-backed disk ( .Fl -a and .Fl -t Ar vnode are implied): .Bd -literal -offset indent dd if=/dev/zero of=somebackingfile bs=1k count=5k mdconfig -f somebackingfile -u 0 bsdlabel -w md0 auto newfs md0c mount /dev/md0c /mnt .Ed .Pp To mount an ISO 9660 CD image file: .Bd -literal -offset indent mount -t cd9660 /dev/`mdconfig -a -t vnode -f cdimage.iso` /mnt .Ed .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr md 4 , .Xr bsdlabel 8 , .Xr fdisk 8 , .Xr mdmfs 8 , .Xr malloc 9 .Sh HISTORY The .Nm utility first appeared in .Fx 5.0 as a cleaner replacement for the .Xr vn 4 and .Xr vnconfig 8 combo. .Sh AUTHORS The .Nm utility was written by .An Poul-Henning Kamp .Aq phk@FreeBSD.org .