System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems

Commands for File System Administration

Most commands for file system administration have both a generic component and a file system–specific component. Whenever possible, you should use the generic commands, which call the file system–specific component. The following table lists the generic commands for file system administration, which are located in the /usr/sbin directory.

Table 15–1 Generic Commands for File System Administration


Command	Man Page	Description
`clri`	clri(1M)	Clears inodes
`df`	df(1M)	Reports the number of free disk blocks and files
`ff`	ff(1M)	Lists file names and statistics for a file system
`fsck`	fsck(1M)	Checks the integrity of a file system and repairs any damage found
`fsdb`	fsdb(1M)	Debugs the file system
`fstyp`	fstyp(1M)	Determines the file system type
`labelit`	labelit(1M)	Lists or provides labels for file systems when they are copied to tape (for use by the `volcopy` command only)
`mkfs`	mkfs(1M)	Creates a new file system
`mount`	mount(1M)	Mounts local and remote file systems
`mountall`	mountall(1M)	Mounts all file systems that are specified in the virtual file system table (`/etc/vfstab`)
`ncheck`	ncheck(1M)	Generates a list of path names with their inode numbers
`umount`	mount(1M)	Unmounts local and remote file systems
`umountall`	mountall(1M)	Unmounts all file systems that are specified in a virtual file system table (`/etc/vfstab`)
`volcopy`	volcopy(1M)	Creates an image copy of a file system

How File System Commands Determine the File System Type

The generic file system commands determine the file system type by following this sequence:

From the -F option, if supplied.
By matching a special device with an entry in the /etc/vfstab file (if special is supplied). For example, fsck first looks for a match against the fsck device field. If no match is found, it then checks the special device field.
By using the default specified in the /etc/default/fs file for local file systems and in the /etc/dfs/fstypes file for remote file systems.

Manual Pages for Generic and Specific Commands

Both the generic commands and specific commands have manual pages in the man pages section 1M: System Administration Commands. The manual page for the generic file system commands provide information about generic command options only. The manual page for a specific file system command has specific information about options for that file system. To look at a specific manual page, append an underscore and the abbreviation for the file system type to the generic command name. For example, to see the specific manual page for mounting a UFS file system, type the following:

$ man mount_ufs