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TARFS(4)		     Kernel Interfaces Manual			TARFS(4)

NAME
     tarfs -- tarball filesystem

SYNOPSIS
     To compile this driver into the kernel, place the following line in your
     kernel configuration file:

	   options TARFS

     Alternatively, to load the driver as a module at boot time, place the
     following line in loader.conf(5):

	   tarfs_load="YES"

DESCRIPTION
     The tarfs driver implements a read-only filesystem backed by a tar(5) file.
     Currently,  only  POSIX  archives,  optionally compressed with zstd(1), are
     supported.

     The preferred I/O size for tarfs filesystems  can	be  adjusted  using  the
     vfs.tarfs.ioshift	sysctl	setting and tunable.  Setting it to 0 will reset
     it to its default value.  Note that changes to this setting only  apply  to
     filesystems mounted after the change.

     When  the	backing tar file is compressed with zstd(1), I/O performance can
     be improved by ensuring that compressed data is  broken  up  into	multiple
     frames.   This  helps  minimize unnecessary decompression work.  When using
     bsdtar(1)	to  create  the  tar  file,  this  can	be  achieved  using  the
     zstd:max-frame-size  and zstd:frame-per-file options.  Sensible frame sizes
     are powers of 2 between the system's base page size (see arch(7))	and  the
     value  of	the  kern.maxphys sysctl.  Smaller frames will generally yield a
     worse compression ratio and require extra kernel memory to maintain an  in-
     dex, and larger frames will on average require more CPU time to access data
     when performing random I/O.

DIAGNOSTICS
     If  enabled  by  the  TARFS_DEBUG kernel option, the vfs.tarfs.debug sysctl
     setting can be used to control debugging output from the tarfs driver.  De-
     bugging output for individual sections of the  driver  can  be  enabled  by
     adding together the relevant values from the table below.

     0x01     Memory allocations
     0x02     Checksum calculations
     0x04     Filesystem operations (vfsops)
     0x08     Path lookups
     0x10     File operations (vnops)
     0x20     General I/O
     0x40     Decompression
     0x80     Decompression index
     0x100    Sparse file mapping
     0x200    Bounce buffer usage

SEE ALSO
     tar(1), zstd(1), fstab(5), tar(5), mount(8), sysctl(8)

HISTORY
     The  tarfs  driver was developed by Stephen J. Kiernan <stevek@FreeBSD.org>
     and Dag-Erling SmA,rgrav <des@FreeBSD.org> for Juniper Networks  and  Klara
     Systems.	 This	manual	 page	was   written  by  Dag-Erling  SmA,rgrav
     <des@FreeBSD.org> for Juniper Networks and Klara Systems.

FreeBSD ports 15.quarterly	February 14, 2023			TARFS(4)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=tarfs&manpath=FreeBSD+15.1-RELEASE+and+Ports.quarterly>

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