Dataset properties are managed through the zfs command's set, inherit, and get subcommands.
You can use the zfs set command to modify any settable dataset property. Or, you can use the zfs create command to set properties when a dataset is created. For a list of settable dataset properties, see Settable ZFS Native Properties.
The zfs set command takes a property/value sequence in the format of property=value followed by a dataset name. Only one property can be set or modified during each zfs set invocation.
The following example sets the atime property to off for tank/home.
# zfs set atime=off tank/home |
In addition, any file system property can be set when a file system is created. For example:
# zfs create -o atime=off tank/home |
You can specify numeric property values by using the following easy-to-understand suffixes (in increasing order of magnitude): BKMGTPEZ. Any of these suffixes can be followed by an optional b, indicating bytes, with the exception of the B suffix, which already indicates bytes. The following four invocations of zfs set are equivalent numeric expressions that set the quota property be set to the value of 50 GB on the tank/home/marks file system:
# zfs set quota=50G tank/home/marks # zfs set quota=50g tank/home/marks # zfs set quota=50GB tank/home/marks # zfs set quota=50gb tank/home/marks |
The values of non-numeric properties are case-sensitive and must be in lowercase letters, with the exception of mountpoint and sharenfs. The values of these properties can have mixed upper and lower case letters.
For more information about the zfs set command, see zfs(1M).
All settable properties, with the exception of quotas and reservations, inherit their value from the parent dataset, unless a quota or reservation is explicitly set on the descendent dataset. If no ancestor has an explicit value set for an inherited property, the default value for the property is used. You can use the zfs inherit command to clear a property value, thus causing the value to be inherited from the parent dataset.
The following example uses the zfs set command to turn on compression for the tank/home/bonwick file system. Then, zfs inherit is used to clear the compression property, thus causing the property to inherit the default value of off. Because neither home nor tank has the compression property set locally, the default value is used. If both had compression enabled, the value set in the most immediate ancestor would be used (home in this example).
# zfs set compression=on tank/home/bonwick # zfs get -r compression tank NAME PROPERTY VALUE SOURCE tank compression off default tank/home compression off default tank/home/bonwick compression on local # zfs inherit compression tank/home/bonwick # zfs get -r compression tank NAME PROPERTY VALUE SOURCE tank compression off default tank/home compression off default tank/home/bonwick compression off default |
The inherit subcommand is applied recursively when the -r option is specified. In the following example, the command causes the value for the compression property to be inherited by tank/home and any descendents it might have:
# zfs inherit -r compression tank/home |
Be aware that the use of the -r option clears the current property setting for all descendent datasets.
For more information about the zfs inherit command, see zfs(1M).
The simplest way to query property values is by using the zfs list command. For more information, see Listing Basic ZFS Information. However, for complicated queries and for scripting, use the zfs get command to provide more detailed information in a customized format.
You can use the zfs get command to retrieve any dataset property. The following example shows how to retrieve a single property value on a dataset:
# zfs get checksum tank/ws NAME PROPERTY VALUE SOURCE tank/ws checksum on default |
The fourth column, SOURCE, indicates the origin of this property value. The following table defines the possible source values.
Table 6–3 Possible SOURCE Values (zfs get Command)
Source Value |
Description |
---|---|
default |
This property value was never explicitly set for this dataset or any of its ancestors. The default value for this property is being used. |
inherited from dataset-name |
This property value is inherited from the parent dataset specified in dataset-name. |
local |
This property value was explicitly set for this dataset by using zfs set. |
temporary |
This property value was set by using the zfs mount -o option and is only valid for the duration of the mount. For more information about temporary mount point properties, see Using Temporary Mount Properties. |
- (none) |
This property is read-only. Its value is generated by ZFS. |
You can use the special keyword all to retrieve all dataset property values. The following examples use the all keyword:
# zfs get all tank/home NAME PROPERTY VALUE SOURCE tank/home type filesystem - tank/home creation Tue Jun 29 11:44 2010 - tank/home used 21K - tank/home available 66.9G - tank/home referenced 21K - tank/home compressratio 1.00x - tank/home mounted yes - tank/home quota none default tank/home reservation none default tank/home recordsize 128K default tank/home mountpoint /tank/home default tank/home sharenfs off default tank/home checksum on default tank/home compression off default tank/home atime on default tank/home devices on default tank/home exec on default tank/home setuid on default tank/home readonly off default tank/home zoned off default tank/home snapdir hidden default tank/home aclmode groupmask default tank/home aclinherit restricted default tank/home canmount on default tank/home shareiscsi off default tank/home xattr on default tank/home copies 1 default tank/home version 4 - tank/home utf8only off - tank/home normalization none - tank/home casesensitivity sensitive - tank/home vscan off default tank/home nbmand off default tank/home sharesmb off default tank/home refquota none default tank/home refreservation none default tank/home primarycache all default tank/home secondarycache all default tank/home usedbysnapshots 0 - tank/home usedbydataset 21K - tank/home usedbychildren 0 - tank/home usedbyrefreservation 0 - tank/home logbias latency default |
The casesensitivity, nbmand, normalization, sharesmb, utf8only, and vscan properties are not fully operational in the Oracle Solaris 10 release because the Oracle Solaris SMB service is not supported in the Oracle Solaris 10 release.
The -s option to zfs get enables you to specify, by source type, the properties to display. This option takes a comma-separated list indicating the desired source types. Only properties with the specified source type are displayed. The valid source types are local, default, inherited, temporary, and none. The following example shows all properties that have been locally set on pool.
# zfs get -s local all pool NAME PROPERTY VALUE SOURCE pool compression on local |
Any of the above options can be combined with the -r option to recursively display the specified properties on all children of the specified dataset. In the following example, all temporary properties on all datasets within tank are recursively displayed:
# zfs get -r -s temporary all tank NAME PROPERTY VALUE SOURCE tank/home atime off temporary tank/home/bonwick atime off temporary tank/home/marks atime off temporary |
You can query property values by using the zfs get command without specifying a target file system, which means the command operates on all pools or file systems. For example:
# zfs get -s local all tank/home atime off local tank/home/bonwick atime off local tank/home/marks quota 50G local |
For more information about the zfs get command, see zfs(1M).
The zfs get command supports the -H and -o options, which are designed for scripting. You can use the -H option to omit header information and to replace white space with the Tab character. Uniform white space allows for easily parseable data. You can use the -o option to customize the output in the following ways:
The literal name can be used with a comma-separated list of properties as defined in the Introducing ZFS Properties section.
A comma-separated list of literal fields, name, value, property, and source, to be output followed by a space and an argument, which is a comma-separated list of properties.
The following example shows how to retrieve a single value by using the -H and -o options of zfs get:
# zfs get -H -o value compression tank/home on |
The -p option reports numeric values as their exact values. For example, 1 MB would be reported as 1000000. This option can be used as follows:
# zfs get -H -o value -p used tank/home 182983742 |
You can use the -r option, along with any of the preceding options, to recursively retrieve the requested values for all descendents. The following example uses the -H, -o, and -r options to retrieve the dataset name and the value of the used property for export/home and its descendents, while omitting the header output:
# zfs get -H -o name,value -r used export/home export/home 5.57G export/home/marks 1.43G export/home/maybee 2.15G |