ramdiskadm(1M)

NAME

     ramdiskadm - administer ramdisk pseudo device

SYNOPSIS

     /usr/sbin/ramdiskadm -a name size [g | m | k | b]

     /usr/sbin/ramdiskadm -d name

     /usr/sbin/ramdiskadm

DESCRIPTION

     The ramdiskadm command administers ramdisk(7D), the  ramdisk
     driver. Use ramdiskadm to create a new named ramdisk device,
     delete an existing named ramdisk, or list information  about
     existing ramdisks.

     Ramdisks created using ramdiskadm are not persistent  across
     reboots.

OPTIONS

     The following options are supported:

     -a name size
           Create a ramdisk named  name  of  size  size  and  its
           corresponding block and character device nodes.

           name must be composed only of the characters a-z, A-Z,
           0-9,  _  (underbar),  and  - (hyphen), but it must not
           begin with a hyphen. It must be no more than 32  char-
           acters long. Ramdisk names must be unique.

           The size can be a decimal number,  or,  when  prefixed
           with  0x,  a  hexadecimal  number, and can specify the
           size in bytes (no suffix), 512-byte blocks (suffix b),
           kilobytes  (suffix  k),  megabytes (suffix m) or giga-
           bytes (suffix g). The size  of  the  ramdisk  actually
           created might be larger than that specified, depending
           on the hardware implementation.

           If the named  ramdisk  is  successfully  created,  its
           block device path is printed on standard out.

     -d name
           Delete an existing ramdisk of the name name. This com-
           mand succeeds only when the named ramdisk is not open.
           The associated memory is freed and  the  device  nodes
           are removed.

           You can delete only ramdisks created using ramdiskadm.
           It  is  not  possible  to  delete  a  ramdisk that was
           created during the boot process.

     Without options, ramdiskadm  lists  any  existing  ramdisks,
     their sizes (in decimal), and whether they can be removed by
     ramdiskadm (see the description of the -d option, above).

EXAMPLES

     Example 1: Creating a 2MB Ramdisk Named mydisk

     # ramdiskadm -a mydisk 2m
     /dev/ramdisk/mydisk

     Example 2: Listing All Ramdisks

     # ramdiskadm
     Block Device                   Size  Removable
     /dev/ramdisk/miniroot     134217728    No
     /dev/ramdisk/certfs         1048576    No
     /dev/ramdisk/mydisk         2097152    Yes

EXIT STATUS

     ramdiskadm returns the following exit values:

     0     Successful completion.

     >0    An error occurred.

ATTRIBUTES

     See attributes(5) for descriptions of the  following  attri-
     butes:

     ____________________________________________________________
    |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |       ATTRIBUTE VALUE       |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Availability                | SUNWcsr                     |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Interface Stability         | Evolving                    |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|

SEE ALSO

     attributes(5), ramdisk(7D)

NOTES

     The abilities of ramdiskadm and the privilege level  of  the
     person  who  uses  the utility are controlled by the permis-
     sions of /dev/ramdiskctl. Read access  allows  query  opera-
     tions, for example, listing device information. Write access
     is required to do any state-changing operations,  for  exam-
     ple, creating or deleting ramdisks.

     As shipped, /dev/ramdiskctl is owned by root, in group  sys,
     and mode 0644, so all users can do query operations but only
     root can perform state-changing operations. An administrator
     can give write access to non-privileged users, allowing them
     to add or delete ramdisks. However,  granting  such  ability
     entails  considerable  risk; such privileges should be given
     only to a trusted group.