Release mdadm-3.0-rc1

[thirdparty/mdadm.git] / mdadm.8

diff --git a/mdadm.8 b/mdadm.8
index b474bc1c890f69f58dba87e425d45af923dd2afa..3b4f47d8264368881c26616436803d892f80196e 100644 (file)
--- a/mdadm.8
+++ b/mdadm.8
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 .\"   the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
 .\"   (at your option) any later version.
 .\" See file COPYING in distribution for details.
-.TH MDADM 8 "" v3.0-devel2
+.TH MDADM 8 "" v3.0-rc1
 .SH NAME
 mdadm \- manage MD devices
 .I aka
@@ -46,6 +46,9 @@ and
 is not a Software RAID mechanism, but does involve
 multiple devices:
 each device is a path to one common physical storage device.
+New installations should not use md/multipath as it is not well
+supported and has no ongoing development.  Use the Device Mapper based
+multipath-tools instead.
 
 .B FAULTY
 is also not true RAID, and it only involves one device.  It
@@ -57,9 +60,9 @@ is different again.  A
 is a collection of devices that are
 managed as a set.  This is similar to the set of devices connected to
 a hardware RAID controller.  The set of devices may contain a number
-of different RAID arrays each utilising some (or all) blocks from a
+of different RAID arrays each utilising some (or all) of the blocks from a
 number of the devices in the set.  For example, two devices in a 5-device set
-might form a RAID1 used the whole devices.  The remaining three might
+might form a RAID1 using the whole devices.  The remaining three might
 have a RAID5 over the first half of each device, and a RAID0 over the
 second half.
 
@@ -70,45 +73,8 @@ the arrays in the container.  So when
 .I mdadm
 creates a
 .B CONTAINER
-device, it just represents the metadata.  Other normal arrays (RAID1
-etc) can be created inside that container.
-
-
-.\".I mdadm
-.\"is a program that can be used to create, manage, and monitor
-.\"MD devices.  As
-.\"such it provides a similar set of functionality to the
-.\".B raidtools
-.\"packages.
-.\"The key differences between
-.\".I mdadm
-.\"and
-.\".B raidtools
-.\"are:
-.\".IP \(bu 4
-.\".I mdadm
-.\"is a single program and not a collection of programs.
-.\".IP \(bu 4
-.\".I mdadm
-.\"can perform (almost) all of its functions without having a
-.\"configuration file and does not use one by default.  Also
-.\".I mdadm
-.\"helps with management of the configuration
-.\"file.
-.\".IP \(bu 4
-.\".I mdadm
-.\"can provide information about your arrays (through Query, Detail, and Examine)
-.\"that
-.\".B  raidtools
-.\"cannot.
-.\".P
-.\".I mdadm
-.\"does not use
-.\".IR /etc/raidtab ,
-.\"the
-.\".B raidtools
-.\"configuration file, at all.  It has a different configuration file
-.\"with a different format and a different purpose.
+device, the device just represents the metadata.  Other normal arrays (RAID1
+etc) can be created inside the container.
 
 .SH MODES
 mdadm has several major modes of operation:
@@ -163,7 +129,7 @@ This provides a convenient interface to a
 system.  As each device is detected,
 .I mdadm
 has a chance to include it in some array as appropriate.
-.P
+
 If a
 .B CONTAINER
 is passed to
@@ -391,7 +357,8 @@ When reporting information about an array, any array which is tagged
 for the given homehost will be reported as such.
 
 When using Auto-Assemble, only arrays tagged for the given homehost
-will be assembled.
+will be allowed to use 'local' names (i.e. not ending in '_' followed
+by a digit string).
 
 .SH For create, build, or grow:
 
@@ -658,13 +625,17 @@ initial resync work faster).  With
 will not try to be so clever.
 
 .TP
-.BR \-a ", " "\-\-auto{=no,yes,md,mdp,part,p}{NN}"
-Instruct mdadm to create the device file if needed, possibly allocating
+.BR \-a ", " "\-\-auto{=yes,md,mdp,part,p}{NN}"
+Instruct mdadm how to create the device file if needed, possibly allocating
 an unused minor number.  "md" causes a non-partitionable array
-to be used.  "mdp", "part" or "p" causes a partitionable array (2.6 and
+to be used (though since Linux 2.6.28, these array devices are in fact
+partitionable).  "mdp", "part" or "p" causes a partitionable array (2.6 and
 later) to be used.  "yes" requires the named md device to have
 a 'standard' format, and the type and minor number will be determined
-from this.  See DEVICE NAMES below.
+from this.  With mdadm 3.0, device creation is normally left up to
+.I udev
+so this option is unlikely to be needed.
+See DEVICE NAMES below.
 
 The argument can also come immediately after
 "\-a".  e.g. "\-ap".
@@ -1116,6 +1087,11 @@ uses to help track which arrays are currently being assembled.
 Run any array assembled as soon as a minimal number of devices are
 available, rather than waiting until all expected devices are present.
 
+.TP
+.B \-\-no\-degraded
+This allows the hot-plug system to prevent arrays from running when it knows
+that more disks may arrive later in the discovery process.
+
 .TP
 .BR \-\-scan ", " \-s
 Only meaningful with