+.BR "mdadm \-\-examine \-\-scan" .
+
+.TP
+.B spares=
+The value is a number of spare devices to expect the array to have.
+The sole use of this keyword and value is as follows:
+.B mdadm \-\-monitor
+will report an array if it is found to have fewer than this number of
+spares when
+.B \-\-monitor
+starts or when
+.B \-\-oneshot
+is used.
+
+.TP
+.B spare\-group=
+The value is a textual name for a group of arrays. All arrays with
+the same
+.B spare\-group
+name are considered to be part of the same group. The significance of
+a group of arrays is that
+.I mdadm
+will, when monitoring the arrays, move a spare drive from one array in
+a group to another array in that group if the first array had a failed
+or missing drive but no spare.
+
+.TP
+.B auto=
+This option is rarely needed with mdadm-3.0, particularly if use with
+the Linux kernel v2.6.28 or later.
+It tells
+.I mdadm
+whether to use partitionable array or non-partitionable arrays and,
+in the absence of
+.IR udev ,
+how many partition devices to create. From 2.6.28 all md array
+devices are partitionable, hence this option is not needed.
+
+The value of this option can be "yes" or "md" to indicate that a
+traditional, non-partitionable md array should be created, or "mdp",
+"part" or "partition" to indicate that a partitionable md array (only
+available in linux 2.6 and later) should be used. This later set can
+also have a number appended to indicate how many partitions to create
+device files for, e.g.
+.BR auto=mdp5 .
+The default is 4.
+
+.TP
+.B bitmap=
+The option specifies a file in which a write-intent bitmap should be
+found. When assembling the array,
+.I mdadm
+will provide this file to the
+.B md
+driver as the bitmap file. This has the same function as the
+.B \-\-bitmap\-file
+option to
+.BR \-\-assemble .
+
+.TP
+.B metadata=
+Specify the metadata format that the array has. This is mainly
+recognised for comparability with the output of
+.BR "mdadm \-Es" .
+
+.TP
+.B container=
+Specify that this array is a member array of some container. The
+value given can be either a path name in /dev, or a UUID of the
+container array.
+
+.TP
+.B member=
+Specify that this array is a member array of some container. Each
+type of container has some way to enumerate member arrays, often a
+simple sequence number. The value identifies which member of a
+container the array is. It will usually accompany a "container=" word.
+.RE
+
+.TP
+.B MAILADDR
+The
+.B mailaddr
+line gives an E-mail address that alerts should be
+sent to when
+.I mdadm
+is running in
+.B \-\-monitor
+mode (and was given the
+.B \-\-scan
+option). There should only be one
+.B MAILADDR
+line and it should have only one address. Any subsequent addresses
+are silently ignored.
+
+.TP
+.B MAILFROM
+The
+.B mailfrom
+line (which can only be abbreviated to at least 5 characters) gives an
+address to appear in the "From" address for alert mails. This can be
+useful if you want to explicitly set a domain, as the default from
+address is "root" with no domain. All words on this line are
+catenated with spaces to form the address.
+
+Note that this value cannot be set via the
+.I mdadm
+commandline. It is only settable via the config file.
+
+.TP
+.B PROGRAM
+The
+.B program
+line gives the name of a program to be run when
+.B "mdadm \-\-monitor"
+detects potentially interesting events on any of the arrays that it
+is monitoring. This program gets run with two or three arguments, they
+being the Event, the md device, and possibly the related component
+device.
+
+There should only be one
+.B program
+line and it should be give only one program.
+
+
+.TP
+.B CREATE
+The
+.B create
+line gives default values to be used when creating arrays and device entries for
+arrays.
+These include:
+
+.RS 4
+.TP
+.B owner=
+.TP
+.B group=
+These can give user/group ids or names to use instead of system
+defaults (root/wheel or root/disk).
+.TP
+.B mode=
+An octal file mode such as 0660 can be given to override the default
+of 0600.
+.TP
+.B auto=
+This corresponds to the
+.B \-\-auto
+flag to mdadm. Give
+.BR yes ,
+.BR md ,
+.BR mdp ,
+.B part
+\(em possibly followed by a number of partitions \(em to indicate how
+missing device entries should be created.
+
+.TP
+.B metadata=
+The name of the metadata format to use if none is explicitly given.
+This can be useful to impose a system-wide default of version-1 superblocks.
+
+.TP
+.B symlinks=no
+Normally when creating devices in
+.B /dev/md/
+.I mdadm
+will create a matching symlink from
+.B /dev/
+with a name starting
+.B md
+or
+.BR md_ .
+Give
+.B symlinks=no
+to suppress this symlink creation.
+
+.TP
+.B names=yes
+Since Linux 2.6.29 it has been possible to create
+.B md
+devices with a name like
+.B md_home
+rather than just a number, like
+.BR md3 .
+.I mdadm
+will use the numeric alternative by default as other tools that interact
+with md arrays may expect only numbers.
+If
+.B names=yes
+is given in
+.I mdadm.conf
+then
+.I mdadm
+will use a name when appropriate.
+If
+.B names=no
+is given, then non-numeric
+.I md
+device names will not be used even if the default changes in a future
+release of
+.IR mdadm .
+.RE
+
+.TP
+.B HOMEHOST
+The
+.B homehost
+line gives a default value for the
+.B \-\-homehost=
+option to mdadm. There should normally be only one other word on the line.
+It should either be a host name, or one of the special words
+.BR <system>,
+.B <none>
+and
+.BR <ignore> .
+If
+.B <system>
+is given, then the
+.BR gethostname ( 2 )
+systemcall is used to get the host name. This is the default.
+
+If
+.B <ignore>
+is given, then a flag is set so that when arrays are being
+auto-assembled the checking of the recorded
+.I homehost
+is disabled.
+If
+.B <ignore>
+is given it is also possible to give an explicit name which will be
+used when creating arrays. This is the only case when there can be
+more that one other word on the
+.B HOMEHOST
+line. If there are other words, or other
+.B HOMEHOST
+lines, they are silently ignored.
+
+If
+.B <none>
+is given, then the default of using
+.BR gethostname ( 2 )
+is over-ridden and no homehost name is assumed.
+
+When arrays are created, this host name will be stored in the
+metadata. When arrays are assembled using auto-assembly, arrays which
+do not record the correct homehost name in their metadata will be
+assembled using a "foreign" name. A "foreign" name alway ends with a
+digit string preceded by an underscore to differentiate it
+from any possible local name. e.g.
+.B /dev/md/1_1
+or
+.BR /dev/md/home_0 .
+.TP
+.B AUTO
+A list of names of metadata format can be given, each preceded by a
+plus or minus sign. Also the word
+.I homehost
+is allowed as is
+.I all
+preceded by plus or minus sign.
+.I all
+is usually last.
+
+When
+.I mdadm
+is auto-assembling an array, either via
+.I \-\-assemble
+or
+.I \-\-incremental
+and it finds metadata of a given type, it checks that metadata type
+against those listed in this line. The first match wins, where
+.I all
+matches anything.
+If a match is found that was preceded by a plus sign, the auto
+assembly is allowed. If the match was preceded by a minus sign, the
+auto assembly is disallowed. If no match is found, the auto assembly
+is allowed.
+
+If the metadata indicates that the array was created for
+.I this
+host, and the word
+.I homehost
+appears before any other match, then the array is treated as a valid
+candidate for auto-assembly.
+
+This can be used to disable all auto-assembly (so that only arrays
+explicitly listed in mdadm.conf or on the command line are assembled),
+or to disable assembly of certain metadata types which might be
+handled by other software. It can also be used to disable assembly of
+all foreign arrays - normally such arrays are assembled but given a
+non-deterministic name in
+.BR /dev/md/ .
+
+The known metadata types are
+.BR 0.90 ,
+.BR 1.x ,
+.BR ddf ,
+.BR imsm .
+
+.B AUTO
+should be given at most once. Subsequent lines are silently ignored.
+Thus an earlier config file in a config directory will over-ride
+the setting in a later config file.
+
+.TP
+.B POLICY
+This is used to specify what automatic behavior is allowed on devices
+newly appearing in the system and provides a way of marking spares that can
+be moved to other arrays as well as the migration domains.
+.I Domain
+can be defined through
+.I policy
+line by specifying a domain name for a number of paths from
+.BR /dev/disk/by-path/ .
+A device may belong to several domains. The domain of an array is a union
+of domains of all devices in that array. A spare can be automatically
+moved from one array to another if the set of the destination array's
+.I domains
+contains all the
+.I domains
+of the new disk or if both arrays have the same
+.IR spare-group .
+
+To update hot plug configuration it is necessary to execute
+.B mdadm \-\-udev\-rules
+command after changing the config file
+
+Key words used in the
+.I POLICY
+line and supported values are:
+
+.RS 7
+.TP
+.B domain=
+any arbitrary string
+.TP
+.B metadata=
+0.9 1.x ddf or imsm
+.TP
+.B path=
+file glob matching anything from
+.B /dev/disk/by-path
+.TP
+.B type=
+either
+.B disk
+or
+.BR part .
+.TP
+.B action=
+include, re-add, spare, spare-same-slot, or force-spare
+.TP
+.B auto=
+yes, no, or homehost.
+
+.P
+The
+.I action
+item determines the automatic behavior allowed for devices matching the
+.I path
+and
+.I type
+in the same line. If a device matches several lines with different
+.I actions
+then the most permissive will apply. The ordering of policy lines
+is irrelevant to the end result.
+.TP
+.B include
+allows adding a disk to an array if metadata on that disk matches that array
+.TP
+.B re\-add
+will include the device in the array if it appears to be a current member
+or a member that was recently removed and the array has a
+write-intent-bitmap to allow the
+.B re\-add
+functionality.
+.TP
+.B spare
+as above and additionally: if the device is bare it can
+become a spare if there is any array that it is a candidate for based
+on domains and metadata.
+.TP
+.B spare\-same\-slot
+as above and additionally if given slot was used by an array that went
+degraded recently and the device plugged in has no metadata then it will
+be automatically added to that array (or it's container)
+.TP
+.B force\-spare
+as above and the disk will become a spare in remaining cases