xfs_freeze(8) System Manager's Manual xfs_freeze(8)
NAME
xfs_freeze - suspend access to an XFS filesystem
SYNOPSIS
xfs_freeze [ -f | -u ] mount-point
xfs_freeze -V
DESCRIPTION
xfs_freeze suspends and resumes access to an XFS filesystem (see
xfs(5)).
xfs_freeze halts new access to the filesystem and creates a stable im-
age on disk. xfs_freeze is intended to be used with volume managers
and hardware RAID devices that support the creation of snapshots.
The mount-point argument is the pathname of the directory where the
filesystem is mounted. The filesystem must be mounted to be frozen
(see mount(8)).
The -f flag requests the specified XFS filesystem to be frozen from new
modifications. When this is selected, all ongoing transactions in the
filesystem are allowed to complete, new write system calls are halted,
other calls which modify the filesystem are halted, and all dirty data,
metadata, and log information are written to disk. Any process at-
tempting to write to the frozen filesystem will block waiting for the
filesystem to be unfrozen.
Note that even after freezing, the on-disk filesystem can contain in-
formation on files that are still in the process of unlinking. These
files will not be unlinked until the filesystem is unfrozen or a clean
mount of the snapshot is complete.
The -u flag is used to un-freeze the filesystem and allow operations to
continue. Any filesystem modifications that were blocked by the freeze
are unblocked and allowed to complete.
The -V flag prints the version number and exits.
Unless -V is specified, one of -f or -u must be supplied to xfs_freeze.
NOTES
A copy of a frozen XFS filesystem will usually have the same univer-
sally unique identifier (UUID) as the original, and thus may be pre-
vented from being mounted. The XFS nouuid mount option can be used to
circumvent this issue.
In Linux kernel version 2.6.29, the interface which XFS uses to freeze
and unfreeze was elevated to the VFS, so that this tool can now be used
on many other Linux filesystems.
SEE ALSO
xfs(5), lvm(8), mount(8).
xfs_freeze(8)