Syntax of Generic Commands

Most of these commands use this syntax:

command [-F type] [-V] [generic-options] [-o specific-options] [special|mount-point] [operands] 

The options and arguments to the generic commands are:

-F type

Specifies the type of file system. If you do not use this option, the command looks for an entry that matches special or mount point in the /etc/vfstab file. Otherwise, the default is taken from the file /etc/default/fs for local file systems and from the file /etc/dfs/fstypes for remote file systems.

-V

Echoes the completed command line. The echoed line may include additional information derived from /etc/vfstab. Use this option to verify and validate the command line. The command is not run.

generic-options

Options common to different types of file systems.

-o specific-options

A list of options specific to the type of file system. The list must have the following format: -o followed by a space, followed by a series of keyword [=value] pairs separated by commas with no intervening spaces.

special|mount-point

Identifies the file system. The name must be either the mount point or the special device file for the slice holding the file system. For some commands, the special file must be the raw (character) device; for other commands it must be the block device. In some cases, this argument is used as a key to search the file /etc/vfstab for a matching entry from which to obtain other information. In most cases, this argument is required and must come immediately after specific-options. However, the argument is not required when you want a command to act on all the file systems (optionally limited by type) listed in the /etc/vfstab file.

operands

Arguments specific to a type of file system. See the specific man page of the command (for example, mkfs_ufs(4) for a detailed description.