4.3BSD-UWisc/man/cat8/tunefs.8

TUNEFS(8)           UNIX Programmer's Manual            TUNEFS(8)



NAME
     tunefs - tune up an existing file system

SYNOPSIS
     /etc/tunefs _t_u_n_e_u_p-_o_p_t_i_o_n_s _s_p_e_c_i_a_l|_f_i_l_e_s_y_s

DESCRIPTION
     _T_u_n_e_f_s is designed to change the dynamic parameters of a
     file system which affect the layout policies.  The parame-
     ters which are to be changed are indicated by the flags
     given below:

     -a maxcontig
          This specifies the maximum number of contiguous blocks
          that will be laid out before forcing a rotational delay
          (see -d below).  The default value is one, since most
          device drivers require an interrupt per disk transfer.
          Device drivers that can chain several buffers together
          in a single transfer should set this to the maximum
          chain length.

     -d rotdelay
          This specifies the expected time (in milliseconds) to
          service a transfer completion interrupt and initiate a
          new transfer on the same disk.  It is used to decide
          how much rotational spacing to place between successive
          blocks in a file.

     -e maxbpg
          This indicates the maximum number of blocks any single
          file can allocate out of a cylinder group before it is
          forced to begin allocating blocks from another cylinder
          group.  Typically this value is set to about one quar-
          ter of the total blocks in a cylinder group.  The
          intent is to prevent any single file from using up all
          the blocks in a single cylinder group, thus degrading
          access times for all files subsequently allocated in
          that cylinder group.  The effect of this limit is to
          cause big files to do long seeks more frequently than
          if they were allowed to allocate all the blocks in a
          cylinder group before seeking elsewhere.  For file sys-
          tems with exclusively large files, this parameter
          should be set higher.

     -m minfree
          This value specifies the percentage of space held back
          from normal users; the minimum free space threshold.
          The default value used is 10%.  This value can be set
          to zero, however up to a factor of three in throughput
          will be lost over the performance obtained at a 10%
          threshold.  Note that if the value is raised above the
          current usage level, users will be unable to allocate



Printed 12/27/86          May 22, 1986                          1






TUNEFS(8)           UNIX Programmer's Manual            TUNEFS(8)



          files until enough files have been deleted to get under
          the higher threshold.

     -o optimization preference
          The file system can either try to minimize the time
          spent allocating blocks, or it can attempt minimize the
          space fragmentation on the disk.  If the value of min-
          free (see above) is less than 10%, then the file system
          should optimize for space to avoid running out of full
          sized blocks.  For values of minfree greater than or
          equal to 10%, fragmentation is unlikely to be prob-
          lematical, and the file system can be optimized for
          time.

SEE ALSO
     fs(5), newfs(8), mkfs(8)

     M. McKusick, W. Joy, S. Leffler, R. Fabry, ``A Fast File
     System for UNIX'', _A_C_M _T_r_a_n_s_a_c_t_i_o_n_s _o_n _C_o_m_p_u_t_e_r _S_y_s_t_e_m_s _2,
     3.  pp 181-197, August 1984.  (reprinted in the System
     Manager's Manual, SMM:14)

BUGS
     This program should work on mounted and active file systems.
     Because the super-block is not kept in the buffer cache, the
     changes will only take effect if the program is run on
     dismounted file systems.  To change the root file system,
     the system must be rebooted after the file system is tuned.

     You can tune a file system, but you can't tune a fish.

























Printed 12/27/86          May 22, 1986                          2