VERITAS File SystemÖ 3.5 (HP OnlineJFS/JFS3.5) AdministratorÆs Guide (December 2002)

Chapter 3

Extent Attributes

Commands Related to Extent Attributes

The VxFS commands for manipulating extent attributes are setext and getext; they allow the user to set up

files with a given set of extent attributes or view any attributes that are already associated with a file. See the

getext (1) and setext (1) manual pages for details on using these commands.

The VxFS-specific commands vxdump and vxrestore, and the mv, cp, and cpio commands, preserve extent

attributes when backing up, restoring, moving, or copying files.

Most of these commands include a command line option (-e) for maintaining extent attributes on files. This

option specifies dealing with a VxFS file that has extent attribute information including reserved space, a

fixed extent size, and extent alignment. The extent attribute information may be lost if the destination file

system does not support extent attributes, has a different block size than the source file system, or lacks free

extents appropriate to satisfy the extent attribute requirements.

The -e option takes any of the following keywords as an argument:

The commands that move, copy, or archive files (mv, cp and cpio) use the -e option with arguments of

ignore, warn, or force.

For example, the mv command could be used with the -e option to produce the following results:

•The ignore keyword loses any extent attributes for files.

•The warn keyword issues a warning if extent attributes for a file cannot be preserved. Such a situation

may take place if the file is moved into a non-VxFS file system; the file would ultimately be moved while

the extent attributes would be lost.

•The force keyword issues an error if attributes are lost and the file is not relocated.

warn Issues a warning message if extent attribute information cannot

be maintained (the default)

force Fails the copy if extent attribute information cannot be

maintained

ignore Ignores extent attribute information entirely