ntfsfallocate(8)

1NTFSFALLOCATE(8)            System Manager's Manual           NTFSFALLOCATE(8)
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NAME

6       ntfsfallocate - preallocate space to a file on an NTFS volume
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SYNOPSIS

9       ntfsfallocate [options] -l length device file [attr-type [attr-name]]
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DESCRIPTION

12       ntfsfallocate  preallocates space for any attribute of a file or direc‐
13       tory, thus reserving space before actual contents is written.  This  is
14       similar to fallocate(1).
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OPTIONS

17       Below  is  a  summary  of  all  the options that ntfsfallocate accepts.
18       Nearly all options have two equivalent names.  The short name  is  pre‐
19       ceded  by - and the long name is preceded by --.  Any single letter op‐
20       tions, that don't take an argument, can be combined into a single  com‐
21       mand,  e.g.  -fv is equivalent to -f -v.  Long named options can be ab‐
22       breviated to any unique prefix of their name.
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24       -f, --force
25              This will override some sensible defaults, such as not  using  a
26              mounted volume.  Use this option with caution.
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28       -h, --help
29              Show a list of options with a brief description of each one.
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31       -l, --length LENGTH
32              This  is  a  mandatory  option to specify the number of bytes to
33              preallocate.  It will be rounded up to a multiple of the cluster
34              size.   A suffix of K, M, G, T, P or E may be appended to mean a
35              multiplicative factor of a power of 1000. Similarly a suffix  of
36              Ki,  Mi,  Gi, Ti, Pi or Ei may be appended to mean a multiplica‐
37              tive factor of a power of 1024.
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39       -n, --no-size-change
40              Do not change the apparent size of the file. The space allocated
41              beyond  the  apparent size is not zeroed, but subsequent writing
42              beyond the apparent end of file will force zeroing the inner al‐
43              located space as it cannot be considered as a hole any more, and
44              this may take significant time.
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46       -N, --no-action
47              Simulate the allocation without actually write to device.
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49       -o, --offset OFFSET
50              Specify the offset in the file where  preallocation  starts.  By
51              default,  the preallocation is counted from the beginning of the
52              file. Space already allocated in the area defined by offset  and
53              length is preserved.
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55       -q, --quiet
56              Suppress some debug/warning/error messages.
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58       -v, --verbose
59              Display more debug/warning/error messages.
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61       -V, --version
62              Show the version number, copyright and license of ntfsfallocate.
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64       attr-type
65              Define  a particular attribute type to be preallocated (advanced
66              use only).  By default, the unnamed $DATA  attribute  (the  con‐
67              tents  of  a plain file) will be preallocated. The attribute has
68              to be specified by a number in decimal or hexadecimal :
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70              ┌───────────────────────────────────────────┐
71              │Hex     Decimal   Name                     │
72              │0x10    16        "$STANDARD_INFORMATION"  │
73              │0x20    32        "$ATTRIBUTE_LIST"        │
74              │0x30    48        "$FILE_NAME"             │
75              │0x40    64        "$OBJECT_ID"             │
76              │0x50    80        "$SECURITY_DESCRIPTOR"   │
77              │0x60    96        "$VOLUME_NAME"           │
78              │0x70    112       "$VOLUME_INFORMATION"    │
79              │0x80    128       "$DATA"                  │
80              │0x90    144       "$INDEX_ROOT"            │
81              │0xA0    160       "$INDEX_ALLOCATION"      │
82              │0xB0    176       "$BITMAP"                │
83              │0xC0    192       "$REPARSE_POINT"         │
84              │0xD0    208       "$EA_INFORMATION"        │
85              │0xE0    224       "$EA"                    │
86              │0xF0    240       "$PROPERTY_SET"          │
87              │0x100   256       "$LOGGED_UTILITY_STREAM" │
88              └───────────────────────────────────────────┘
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90       attr-name
91              Define the name of the particular attribute type to be  preallo‐
92              cated (advanced use only).
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EXAMPLES

95       Preallocate 100MB to the file database.db located in the Data directory
96       which is at the root of an NTFS file system.
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98              ntfsfallocate -l 100M /dev/sda1 Data/database.db
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BUGS

102       There are no known problems with ntfsfallocate, however it can lead  to
103       configurations  not  supported  by Windows and Windows may crash (BSOD)
104       when writing to preallocated clusters which were not  written  to  ear‐
105       lier.  Files  with preallocated space should be fully be written to be‐
106       fore they are updated by Windows.
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108       If you find a bug in ntfsfallocate proper, please  send  an  email  de‐
109       scribing the problem to the development team:
110       ntfs-3g-devel@lists.sf.net
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AUTHORS

113       ntfsfallocate was written by Jean-Pierre Andre.
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AVAILABILITY

116       ntfsfallocate is part of the ntfs-3g package and is available from:
117       https://github.com/tuxera/ntfs-3g/wiki/
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