ntfsfallocate

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

NAME
       ntfsfallocate - preallocate space to a file on an NTFS volume

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

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

OPTIONS
       Below  is  a  summary  of  all  the options that ntfsfallocate accepts.
       Nearly all options have two equivalent names.  The short name  is  pre-
       ceded  by - and the long name is preceded by --.  Any single letter op-
       tions, that don't take an argument, can be combined into a single  com-
       mand,  e.g.  -fv is equivalent to -f -v.  Long named options can be ab-
       breviated to any unique prefix of their name.

       -f, --force
              This will override some sensible defaults, such as not  using  a
              mounted volume.  Use this option with caution.

       -h, --help
              Show a list of options with a brief description of each one.

       -l, --length LENGTH
              This  is  a  mandatory  option to specify the number of bytes to
              preallocate.  It will be rounded up to a multiple of the cluster
              size.   A suffix of K, M, G, T, P or E may be appended to mean a
              multiplicative factor of a power of 1000. Similarly a suffix  of
              Ki,  Mi,  Gi, Ti, Pi or Ei may be appended to mean a multiplica-
              tive factor of a power of 1024.

       -n, --no-size-change
              Do not change the apparent size of the file. The space allocated
              beyond  the  apparent size is not zeroed, but subsequent writing
              beyond the apparent end of file will force zeroing the inner al-
              located space as it cannot be considered as a hole any more, and
              this may take significant time.

       -N, --no-action
              Simulate the allocation without actually write to device.

       -o, --offset OFFSET
              Specify the offset in the file where  preallocation  starts.  By
              default,  the preallocation is counted from the beginning of the
              file. Space already allocated in the area defined by offset  and
              length is preserved.

       -q, --quiet
              Suppress some debug/warning/error messages.

       -v, --verbose
              Display more debug/warning/error messages.

       -V, --version
              Show the version number, copyright and license of ntfsfallocate.

       attr-type
              Define  a particular attribute type to be preallocated (advanced
              use only).  By default, the unnamed $DATA  attribute  (the  con-
              tents  of  a plain file) will be preallocated. The attribute has
              to be specified by a number in decimal or hexadecimal :

              +-------------------------------------------+
              |Hex     Decimal   Name                     |
              |0x10    16        "$STANDARD_INFORMATION"  |
              |0x20    32        "$ATTRIBUTE_LIST"        |
              |0x30    48        "$FILE_NAME"             |
              |0x40    64        "$OBJECT_ID"             |
              |0x50    80        "$SECURITY_DESCRIPTOR"   |
              |0x60    96        "$VOLUME_NAME"           |
              |0x70    112       "$VOLUME_INFORMATION"    |
              |0x80    128       "$DATA"                  |
              |0x90    144       "$INDEX_ROOT"            |
              |0xA0    160       "$INDEX_ALLOCATION"      |
              |0xB0    176       "$BITMAP"                |
              |0xC0    192       "$REPARSE_POINT"         |
              |0xD0    208       "$EA_INFORMATION"        |
              |0xE0    224       "$EA"                    |
              |0xF0    240       "$PROPERTY_SET"          |
              |0x100   256       "$LOGGED_UTILITY_STREAM" |
              +-------------------------------------------+

       attr-name
              Define the name of the particular attribute type to be  preallo-
              cated (advanced use only).

EXAMPLES
       Preallocate 100MB to the file database.db located in the Data directory
       which is at the root of an NTFS file system.

              ntfsfallocate -l 100M /dev/sda1 Data/database.db

BUGS
       There are no known problems with ntfsfallocate, however it can lead  to
       configurations  not  supported  by Windows and Windows may crash (BSOD)
       when writing to preallocated clusters which were not  written  to  ear-
       lier.  Files  with preallocated space should be fully be written to be-
       fore they are updated by Windows.

       If you find a bug in ntfsfallocate proper, please  send  an  email  de-
       scribing the problem to the development team:
       ntfs-3g-devel@lists.sf.net

AUTHORS
       ntfsfallocate was written by Jean-Pierre Andre.

AVAILABILITY
       ntfsfallocate is part of the ntfs-3g package and is available from:
       http://www.tuxera.com/community/

SEE ALSO
       ntfs-3g(8), ntfstruncate(8), ntfsprogs(8), fallocate(1)

ntfs-3g 2017.3.23AR.3              June 2014                  NTFSFALLOCATE(8)