MDCONFIG(8) MidnightBSD 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/cyl]

mdconfig −d −u unit
mdconfig −l [−n] [−u unit]

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.

−d

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

−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 backingstore for this memory disk.

swap

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

−f file

Filename to use for the vnode type memory disk. Options −a and −t vnode are implied if not specified.

−l

List configured devices. If given with −u, display details about that particular device.

−n

When printing md device names, print only the unit number without the md 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, kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte and terabyte respectively. Options −a and −t swap are implied if not specified.

−S sectorsize

Sectorsize to use for malloc backed device.

−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 constructing 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 for the md(4) device instead of automatic allocation.

EXAMPLES

To create a 4 megabyte malloc(9) backed memory disk. The name of the allocated unit will be output on stdout like ‘‘md3’’:

mdconfig -a -t malloc -s 4m

To create a disk named /dev/md4 with /tmp/boot.flp as backing:

mdconfig -a -t vnode -f /tmp/boot.flp -u 4

To detach and free all resources used by /dev/md4:

mdconfig -d -u 4

To create and mount a 128MByte swap backed file system on /tmp:

mdconfig -a -t swap -s 128M -u 10
newfs -U /dev/md10
mount /dev/md10 /tmp
chmod 1777 /tmp

To 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 0
bsdlabel -w md0 auto
newfs md0c
mount /dev/md0c /mnt

To mount an ISO 9660 CD image file:

mdconfig -a -t vnode -u 10 -f cdimage.iso
mount_cd9660 /dev/md10 /mnt

SEE ALSO

md(4), 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〉.

MidnightBSD 0.3 November 28, 2007 MidnightBSD 0.3