BTRFS(8)btrfsBTRFS(8)NAMEbtrfs - control a btrfs filesystem
SYNOPSISbtrfs subvolume snapshot [-r] <source> [<dest>/]<name>
btrfs subvolume delete <subvolume>
btrfs subvolume create [<dest>/]<name>
btrfs subvolume list [-p] <path>
btrfs subvolume set-default <id> <path>
btrfs subvolume get-default <path>
btrfs filesystem sync <path>
btrfs filesystem resize [+/-]<size>[gkm]|max <filesystem>
btrfs filesystem label <dev> [newlabel]
btrfs filesystem defrag [options] <file>|<dir> [<file>|<dir>...]
btrfs subvolume find-new <subvolume> <last_gen>
btrfs filesystem balance <path>
btrfs filesystem defragment <file>|<dir> [<file>|<dir>...]
btrfs device scan [--all-devices|<device> [<device>...]]
btrfs device show [--all-devices|<uuid>|<label>]
btrfs device add <device> [<device>...] <path>
btrfs device delete <device> [<device>...] <path>
btrfs scrub start [-Bdqru] {<path>|<device>}
btrfs scrub cancel {<path>|<device>}
btrfs scrub resume [-Bdqru] {<path>|<device>}
btrfs scrub status [-d] {<path>|<device>}
btrfs inspect-internal inode-resolve [-v] <inode> <path>
btrfs inspect-internal logical-resolve [-Pv] <logical> <path>
btrfs help|--help|-h
btrfs <command> --help
DESCRIPTIONbtrfs is used to control the filesystem and the files and directories
stored. It is the tool to create or destroy a snapshot or a subvolume
for the filesystem, to defrag a file or a directory, flush the data to
the disk, to resize the filesystem, to scan the device.
It is possible to abbreviate the commands unless the commands are
ambiguous. For example: it is possible to run btrfs sub snaps instead
of btrfs subvolume snapshot. But btrfs file s is not allowed, because
file s may be interpreted both as filesystem show and as filesystem
sync. In this case btrfs returnsfilesystem sync If a command is termi‐
nated by --help , the detailed help is showed. If the passed command
matches more commands, detailed help of all the matched commands is
showed. For example btrfs dev --help shows the help of all device* com‐
mands.
COMMANDS
subvolume snapshot [-r] <source> [<dest>/]<name>
Create a writable/readonly snapshot of the subvolume <source>
with the name <name> in the <dest> directory. If <source> is not
a subvolume, btrfs returns an error. If -r is given, the snap‐
shot will be readonly.
subvolume delete <subvolume>
Delete the subvolume <subvolume>. If <subvolume> is not a sub‐
volume, btrfs returns an error.
subvolume create [<dest>/]<name>
Create a subvolume in <dest> (or in the current directory if
<dest> is omitted).
subvolume list [-p] <path>
List the subvolumes present in the filesystem <path>. For every
subvolume the following information is shown by default. ID
<ID> top level <ID> path <path> where path is the relative path
of the subvolume to the top level subvolume. The subvolume's ID
may be used by the subvolume set-default command, or at mount
time via the subvol= option. If -p is given, then parent <ID>
is added to the output between ID and top level. The parent's ID
may be used at mount time via the subvolrootid= option.
subvolume set-default <id> <path>
Set the subvolume of the filesystem <path> which is mounted as
default. The subvolume is identified by <id>, which is returned
by the subvolume list command.
subvolume get-default <path>
Get the default subvolume of the filesystem <path>. The output
format is similar to subvolume list command.
filesystem defragment -c[zlib|lzo] [-l len] [-s start] [-t size] -[vf]
<file>|<dir> [<file>|<dir>...]
Defragment file data and/or directory metadata. To defragment
all files in a directory you have to specify each one on its own
or use your shell wildcards.
The start position and the number of bytes to deframention can
be specified by start and len. Any extent bigger than thresh
will be considered already defragged. Use 0 to take the kernel
default, and use 1 to say eveery single extent must be rewrit‐
ten. You can also turn on compression in defragment operations.
-v be verbose
-c compress file contents while defragmenting
-f flush filesystem after defragmenting
-s start defragment only from byte start onward
-l len defragment only up to len bytes
-t size defragment only files at least size bytes big
NOTE: defragmenting with kernels up to 2.6.37 will unlink COW-ed
copies of data, don't use it if you use snapshots, have de-
duplicated your data or made copies with cp --reflink. subvol‐
ume find-new <subvolume> <last_gen> List the recently modified
files in a subvolume, after <last_gen> ID.
filesystem sync <path>
Force a sync for the filesystem identified by <path>.
filesystem resize [+/-]<size>[gkm]|max <path>
Resize a filesystem identified by <path>. The <size> parameter
specifies the new size of the filesystem. If the prefix + or -
is present the size is increased or decreased by the quantity
<size>. If no units are specified, the unit of the <size>
parameter defaults to bytes. Optionally, the size parameter may
be suffixed by one of the following the units designators: 'K',
'M', or 'G', kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes, respectively.
If 'max' is passed, the filesystem will occupy all available
space on the volume(s).
The resize command does not manipulate the size of underlying
partition. If you wish to enlarge/reduce a filesystem, you must
make sure you can expand the partition before enlarging the
filesystem and shrink the partition after reducing the size of
the filesystem.
btrfs filesystem label <dev> [newlabel]
Show or update the label of a filesystem. <dev> is used to iden‐
tify the filesystem. If a newlabel optional argument is passed,
the label is changed. The following costraints exist for a
label:
- the maximum allowable lenght shall be less or equal than 256
chars
- the label shall not contain the '/' or '\' characters.
NOTE: Currently there are the following limitations:
- the filesystem has to be unmounted
- the filesystem should not have more than one device.
filesystem show [--all-devices|<uuid>|<label>]
Show the btrfs filesystem with some additional info. If no UUID
or label is passed, btrfs show info of all the btrfs filesystem.
If --all-devices is passed, all the devices under /dev are
scanned; otherwise the devices list is extracted from the
/proc/partitions file.
device balance <path>
Balance the chunks of the filesystem identified by <path> across
the devices.
device add <dev> [<dev>..] <path>
Add device(s) to the filesystem identified by <path>.
device delete <dev> [<dev>..] <path>
Remove device(s) from a filesystem identified by <path>.
device scan [--all-devices|<device> [<device>...]
If one or more devices are passed, these are scanned for a btrfs
filesystem. If no devices are passed, btrfs scans all the block
devices listed in the /proc/partitions file. Finally, if --all-
devices is passed, all the devices under /dev are scanned.
scrub start [-Bdqru] {<path>|<device>}
Start a scrub on all devices of the filesystem identified by
<path> or on a single <device>. Without options, scrub is
started as a background process. Progress can be obtained with
the scrub status command. Scrubbing involves reading all data
from all disks and verifying checksums. Errors are corrected
along the way if possible.
Options
-B Do not background and print scrub statistics when finished.
-d Print separate statistics for each device of the filesystem
(-B only).
-q Quiet. Omit error messages and statistics.
-r Read only mode. Do not attempt to correct anything.
-u Scrub unused space as well. (NOT IMPLEMENTED)
scrub cancel {<path>|<device>}
If a scrub is running on the filesystem identified by <path>,
cancel it. Progress is saved in the scrub progress file and
scrubbing can be resumed later using the scrub resume command.
If a <device> is given, the corresponding filesystem is found
and scrub cancel behaves as if it was called on that filesystem.
scrub resume [-Bdqru] {<path>|<device>}
Resume a canceled or interrupted scrub cycle on the filesystem
identified by <path> or on a given <device>. Does not start a
new scrub if the last scrub finished successfully.
Options
see scrub start.
scrub status [-d] {<path>|<device>}
Show status of a running scrub for the filesystem identified by
<path> or for the specified <device>. If no scrub is running,
show statistics of the last finished or canceled scrub for that
filesystem or device.
Options
-d Print separate statistics for each device of the filesys‐
tem.
inspect-internal inode-resolve [-v] <inode> <path>
Resolves an <inode> in subvolume <path> to all filesystem paths.
Options
-v verbose mode. print count of returned paths and ioctl()
return value
inspect-internal logical-resolve [-Pv] <logical> <path>
Resolves a <logical> address in the filesystem mounted at <path>
to all inodes. By default, each inode is then resolved to a
file system path (similar to the inode-resolve subcommand).
Options
-P skip the path resolving and print the inodes instead
-v verbose mode. print count of returned paths and all ioctl()
return values
EXIT STATUSbtrfs returns a zero exist status if it succeeds. Non zero is returned
in case of failure.
AVAILABILITYbtrfs is part of btrfs-progs. Btrfs filesystem is currently under heavy
development, and not suitable for any uses other than benchmarking and
review. Please refer to the btrfs wiki http://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org
for further details.
SEE ALSOmkfs.btrfs(8)btrfsBTRFS(8)
