growfs(1M)growfs(1M)NAMEgrowfs - expand a filesystem
SYNOPSISgrowfs [-s size] special
DESCRIPTIONgrowfs expands an existing Extent Filesystem, see efs(4). The special
argument is the pathname of the device special file where the filesystem
resides. The filesystem must be unmounted to be grown, see umount(1M).
The existing contents of the filesystem are undisturbed, and the added
space becomes available for additional file storage.
If a -s size argument is given, the filesystem is grown to occupy size
basic blocks of storage (if available).
If no size argument is given, the filesystem is grown to occupy all the
space available on the device.
growfs is most often used in conjunction with logical volumes; see lv(7M)
and xlv(7M). However, it can also be used on a regular disk partition,
for example, when a partition has been enlarged while retaining the same
starting block.
To grow XFS filesystems, use the xfs_growfs(1M) command.
PRACTICAL USE
Filesystems normally occupy all of the space on the device where they
reside. In order to grow a filesystem, it is necessary to provide added
space for it to occupy. Therefore there must be at least one spare new
disk partition available.
Adding the space is done through the mechanism of logical volumes.
If the filesystem already resides on a logical volume, the volume is
simply extended using mklv(1M).
If the filesystem is currently on a regular partition, it is necessary to
create a new logical volume whose first member is the existing partition,
with subsequent members being the new partitions to be added. Again,
mklv is used for this.
In either case growfs is run on the logical volume device, and the
expanded filesystem is available for use on the logical volume device.
DIAGNOSTICSgrowfs expands only clean filesystems. If any problem is detected with
the existing filesystem, the following error message is printed:
growfs: filesystem on <special> needs cleaning.
If a size argument is given, growfs checks that the specified amount of
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space is available on the device. If not, it prints the error message:
growfs: cannot access <size> blocks on <special>.
growfs works in units of the cylinder group size in the existing
filesystem. To usefully expand the filesystem there must be space for at
least one new cylinder group. Failing this, it prints the error message:
growfs: not enough space to expand filesystem.
COMPATIBILITY NOTEgrowfs can expand a filesystem from any IRIX release, and filesystems can
be expanded repeatedly. However, once a filesystem has been grown, it is
NOT possible to mount it on an IRIX system earlier than release 3.3, and
a pre-3.3 fsck does not recognize it.
SEE ALSOmkfs(1M), mklv(1M), xfs_growfs(1M), lv(7M), xlv(7M).
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