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fossil.4 (10027B)


      1 .TH FOSSIL 4
      2 .SH NAME
      3 fossil, flchk, flfmt \- archival file server
      4 .SH SYNOPSIS
      5 .B fossil/fossil
      6 [
      7 .B -Dt
      8 ]
      9 [
     10 .B -c
     11 .I cmd
     12 ]...
     13 [
     14 .B -f
     15 .I file
     16 ]
     17 [
     18 .B -m
     19 .I free-memory-percent
     20 ]
     21 .PP
     22 .B fossil/flchk
     23 [
     24 .B -f
     25 ]
     26 [
     27 .B -c
     28 .I ncache
     29 ]
     30 [
     31 .B -h
     32 .I host
     33 ]
     34 .I file
     35 .PP
     36 .B fossil/flfmt
     37 [
     38 .B -y
     39 ]
     40 [
     41 .B -b
     42 .I blocksize
     43 ]
     44 [
     45 .B -h
     46 .I host
     47 ]
     48 [
     49 .B -l
     50 .I label
     51 ]
     52 [
     53 .B -v
     54 .I score
     55 ]
     56 .I file
     57 .PP
     58 .B fossil/conf
     59 [
     60 .B -w
     61 ]
     62 .I file
     63 [
     64 .I config
     65 ]
     66 .PP
     67 .B fossil/last
     68 .I file
     69 .SH DESCRIPTION
     70 .I Fossil
     71 is the main file system for Plan 9.
     72 Unlike the Plan 9 file servers of old,
     73 .I fossil
     74 is a collection of user-space programs that run on a standard Plan 9 kernel.
     75 The name of the main fossil file server at Murray Hill is
     76 .BR pie .
     77 The Plan 9 distribution file server,
     78 .BR sources ,
     79 is also a fossil server.
     80 .PP
     81 .I Fossil
     82 is structured as a magnetic disk write buffer
     83 optionally backed by a Venti server for archival storage.
     84 It serves the Plan 9 protocol via TCP.
     85 A
     86 .I fossil
     87 file server conventionally presents
     88 three trees in the root directory of each file system:
     89 .BR active ,
     90 .BR archive ,
     91 and
     92 .BR snapshot .
     93 .B /active
     94 is the root of a conventional file system
     95 whose blocks are stored in a disk file.
     96 In a typical configuration, the file server periodically
     97 marks the entire file system copy-on-write, effectively
     98 taking a snapshot of the file system at that moment.
     99 This snapshot is made available in a name
    100 created from the date and time of the snapshot:
    101 .BI /snapshot/ yyyy / mmdd / hhmm \fR,
    102 where
    103 .I yyyy
    104 is the full year,
    105 .I mm
    106 is the month number,
    107 .I dd
    108 is the day number,
    109 .I hh
    110 is the hour,
    111 and
    112 .I mm
    113 is the minute.
    114 The snapshots in
    115 .B /snapshot
    116 are ephemeral: eventually they are deleted
    117 to reclaim the disk space they occupy.
    118 Long-lasting snapshots stored on a Venti server
    119 are kept in 
    120 .B /archive
    121 and also named from the date (though not the time) of the snapshot:
    122 .BI /archive/ yyyy / mmdds \fR,
    123 where
    124 .IR yyyy ,
    125 .IR mm ,
    126 and
    127 .I dd
    128 are year, month, and day as before,
    129 and
    130 .I s
    131 is a sequence number if more than one
    132 archival snapshot is done in a day.
    133 For the first snapshot,
    134 .I s
    135 is null.
    136 For the subsequent snapshots,
    137 .I s
    138 is
    139 .BR .1 ,
    140 .BR .2 ,
    141 .BR .3 ,
    142 etc.
    143 The root of the main file system that is frozen
    144 for the first archival snapshot of December 15, 2002
    145 will be named
    146 .BR /archive/2002/1215/ .
    147 .PP
    148 The attach name used in
    149 .I mount
    150 (see
    151 .MR bind (1) ,
    152 .MR bind (2)
    153 and
    154 .MR attach (5) )
    155 selects a file system to be served
    156 and optionally a subtree,
    157 in the format
    158 .IB fs \fR[\fB/ dir \fR].
    159 An empty attach name selects
    160 .BR main/active .
    161 .PP
    162 .I Fossil
    163 normally requires all users except
    164 .L none
    165 to provide authentication tickets on each
    166 .MR attach (5) .
    167 To keep just anyone from connecting,
    168 .L none
    169 is only allowed to attach after another user
    170 has successfully attached on the same
    171 connection.
    172 The other user effectively acts as a chaperone
    173 for
    174 .LR none .
    175 Authentication can be disabled using the
    176 .B -A
    177 flag to
    178 .B open
    179 or
    180 .B srv
    181 (see
    182 .MR fossilcons (8) ).
    183 .PP
    184 The groups called
    185 .B noworld
    186 and
    187 .B write
    188 are special on the file server.
    189 Any user belonging to
    190 .B noworld
    191 has attenuated access privileges.
    192 Specifically, when checking such a user's access to files,
    193 the file's permission bits are first ANDed
    194 with 0770 for normal files and 0771 for directories.
    195 The effect is to deny world access permissions to
    196 .B noworld
    197 users, except when walking into directories.
    198 If the
    199 .B write
    200 group exists, then the file system appears read-only
    201 to users not in the group.
    202 This is used to make the Plan 9 distribution file server
    203 .RI ( sources.cs.bell-labs.com )
    204 readable by the world but writable only to the developers.
    205 .PP
    206 .I Fossil
    207 starts a new instance of the fossil file server.
    208 It is configured mainly through console commands,
    209 documented in
    210 .MR fossilcons (8) .
    211 .PP
    212 The options are:
    213 .TF "-c\fI cmd
    214 .PD
    215 .TP
    216 .B -D
    217 Toggle the debugging flag, which is initially off.
    218 When the flag is set, information about authentication
    219 and all protocol messages are written to standard error.
    220 .TP
    221 .B -t
    222 Start a file server console on
    223 .BR /dev/cons .
    224 If this option is given,
    225 .I fossil
    226 does not fork itself into the background.
    227 .TP
    228 .BI -c " cmd
    229 Execute the console command
    230 .IR cmd .
    231 This option may be repeated to give multiple
    232 commands.
    233 Typically the only commands given on the
    234 command line are
    235 .RB `` ".\fI file" ,''
    236 which executes a file containing commands,
    237 and
    238 .RB `` "srv -p" \fIcons \fR,''
    239 which starts a file server console on
    240 .BI /srv/ cons \fR.
    241 See
    242 .MR fossilcons (8)
    243 for more information.
    244 .TP
    245 .BI -f " file
    246 Read and execute console commands stored in the Fossil disk 
    247 .IR file .
    248 .I Conf
    249 .RI ( q.v. )
    250 reads and writes the command set stored in the disk.
    251 .TP
    252 .B -m
    253 Allocate
    254 .I free-memory-percent
    255 percent of the available free RAM for buffers.
    256 This overrides all other memory sizing parameters,
    257 notably the
    258 .B -c
    259 option to
    260 .BR open .
    261 30% is a reasonable choice.
    262 .PD
    263 .PP
    264 .I Flchk
    265 checks the fossil file system stored in
    266 .I file
    267 for inconsistencies.
    268 .I Flchk
    269 is deprecated in favor of the console
    270 .B check
    271 command (see
    272 .MR fossilcons (8) ).
    273 .I Flchk
    274 prints
    275 .I fossil
    276 console commands that may be
    277 executed to take care of
    278 bad pointers
    279 .RB ( clrp ),
    280 bad entries
    281 .RB ( clre ),
    282 bad directory entries
    283 .RB ( clri ),
    284 unreachable blocks
    285 .RB ( bfree ).
    286 Console commands are interspersed with
    287 more detailed commentary on the file system.
    288 The commands are distinguished by being prefixed with
    289 sharp signs.
    290 Note that all proposed fixes are rather drastic: offending
    291 pieces of file system are simply chopped off.
    292 .PP
    293 .I Flchk
    294 does
    295 .I not
    296 modify the file system, so it is safe to
    297 run concurrently with
    298 .IR fossil ,
    299 though in this case
    300 the list of unreachable
    301 blocks and any inconsistencies involving the active file system
    302 should be taken with a grain of salt.
    303 .PP
    304 The options are:
    305 .TF "-h\fI host
    306 .PD
    307 .TP
    308 .B -f
    309 Fast mode.
    310 By default,
    311 .I flchk
    312 checks the entire file system image for consistency,
    313 which includes all the archives to Venti
    314 and can take a very long time.
    315 In fast mode,
    316 .I flchk
    317 avoids walking in Venti blocks
    318 whenever possible.
    319 .TP
    320 .BI -c " ncache
    321 Keep a cache of
    322 .I ncache
    323 (by default, 1000)
    324 file system blocks in memory during the check.
    325 .TP
    326 .BI -h " host
    327 Use
    328 .I host
    329 as the Venti server.
    330 .PD
    331 .PP
    332 .I Flfmt
    333 prepares
    334 .I file
    335 as a new fossil file system.
    336 The file system is initialized with three empty directories
    337 .BR active ,
    338 .BR archive ,
    339 and
    340 .BR snapshot ,
    341 as described above.
    342 The options are:
    343 .TF "-b\fI blocksize
    344 .PD
    345 .TP
    346 .B -y
    347 Yes mode.
    348 By default,
    349 .I flfmt
    350 will prompt for confirmation before formatting
    351 a file that already contains a fossil file system,
    352 and before formatting a file that is not served
    353 directly by a kernel device.
    354 If the
    355 .B -y
    356 flag is given, no such checks are made.
    357 .TP
    358 .BI -b " blocksize
    359 Set the file system block size (by default, 8192).
    360 .TP
    361 .BI -h " host
    362 Use
    363 .I host
    364 as the Venti server.
    365 .TP
    366 .BI -l " label
    367 Set the textual label on the file system to
    368 .IR label .
    369 The label is only a comment.
    370 .TP
    371 .BI -v " score
    372 Initialize the file system using the vac file
    373 system stored on Venti at
    374 .IR score .
    375 The score should have been generated by
    376 .I fossil
    377 rather than by
    378 .MR vac (1) ,
    379 so that the appropriate snapshot metadata is present.
    380 .PD
    381 .PP
    382 .I Conf
    383 reads or writes the configuration branded on the Fossil disk
    384 .IR file .
    385 By default, it reads the configuration from the disk and prints it to
    386 standard output.
    387 If the
    388 .B -w
    389 flag is given,
    390 .I conf
    391 reads a new configuration from 
    392 .I config
    393 (or else from standard input)
    394 and writes it to the disk.
    395 Inside the configuration file, the argument
    396 .L *
    397 may be used to stand in for the name of the disk holding the configuration.
    398 The Plan 9 kernel boot process runs
    399 .RB `` fossil
    400 .B -f
    401 .IR disk ''
    402 to start a Fossil file server.
    403 The disk is just a convenient place to store configuration
    404 information.
    405 .PP
    406 .I Last
    407 prints the vac score that resulted after the most recent archival snapshot 
    408 of the fossil in
    409 .I file.
    410 .SH EXAMPLES
    411 .PP
    412 Place the root of the archive file system on
    413 .B /n/dump
    414 and show the modified times of the MIPS C compiler
    415 over all dumps in December 2002:
    416 .IP
    417 .EX
    418 9fs dump
    419 ls -l /n/dump/2002/12*/mips/bin/vc
    420 .EE
    421 .PP
    422 To get only one line of output for each version of the compiler:
    423 .IP
    424 .EX
    425 ls -lp /n/dump/2002/12*/mips/bin/vc | uniq
    426 .EE
    427 .ne 14
    428 .PP
    429 Initialize a new file system, start the server with permission
    430 checking turned off, create a users file, and mount the server:
    431 .IP
    432 .EX
    433 fossil/flfmt /dev/sdC0/fossil
    434 fossil/conf -w /dev/sdC0/fossil <<EOF
    435 fsys main config
    436 fsys main open -AWP
    437 fsys main
    438 create /active/adm adm sys d775
    439 create /active/adm/users adm sys 664
    440 users -w
    441 srv -p fscons
    442 srv fossil
    443 EOF
    444 fossil/fossil -f /dev/sdC0/fossil
    445 mount /srv/fossil /n/fossil
    446 .EE
    447 .LP
    448 See the discussion of the
    449 .B users
    450 and
    451 .B uname
    452 commands in
    453 .MR fossilcons (8)
    454 for more about the user table.
    455 .ne 3
    456 .PP
    457 Perhaps because the disk has been corrupted or replaced,
    458 format a new file system using the last archive score printed
    459 on the console:
    460 .IP
    461 .EX
    462 fossil/flfmt -v b9b3...5559 /dev/sdC0/fossil
    463 .EE
    464 .LP
    465 Note that while
    466 .B /snapshot
    467 will be lost,
    468 .B /active
    469 and
    470 .B /archive
    471 will be restored to their contents at the time of the
    472 last archival snapshot.
    473 .ne 3
    474 .PP
    475 Blindly accept the changes prescribed by
    476 .I flchk
    477 (not recommended):
    478 .IP
    479 .EX
    480 fossil/flchk /dev/sdC0/fossil | sed -n 's/^# //p' >>/srv/fscons
    481 .EE
    482 .LP
    483 A better strategy is to vet the output,
    484 filter out any suggestions you're not comfortable with,
    485 and then use the
    486 .I sed
    487 command to prepare the script.
    488 .SH SOURCE
    489 .B \*9/src/cmd/fossil
    490 .SH SEE ALSO
    491 .MR yesterday (1) ,
    492 .MR fs (3) ,
    493 .MR fs (4) ,
    494 .MR srv (4) ,
    495 .MR fossilcons (8) ,
    496 .MR loadfossil (8) ,
    497 .MR venti (8)
    498 .SH BUGS
    499 It is possible that the disk format (but not the Venti format)
    500 will change in the future, to make the disk a full cache
    501 rather than just a write buffer.
    502 Changing to the new format will require reformatting
    503 the disk as in the example above,
    504 but note that this will preserve most of the file system
    505 (all but
    506 .BR /snapshot )
    507 with little effort.
    508 .PP
    509 The
    510 .B -m
    511 option currently assumes a block size of 8K bytes,
    512 and a single file system per
    513 .I fossil
    514 instance.